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The New Year is here and it is traditionally a time to look back over the year that has just passed and look forward with hopes and dreams to the next. The Prodivers Teams across the Maldives have been reminiscing about 2018 and were asked to pick three highlights – a difficult task with so many amazing encounters and happenings…

Hurawalhi
2018 saw the opening of the new dive base on Kudadoo Private Island which will be operated by the team here on Hurawalhi, everyone is very excited to be able to share amazing underwater encounters with guests staying there. In November we were visited by an Ornate Eagle Ray which spent 3-4 days feeding underneath the water villas and during a full day trip to Noonu Atoll we were treated to the incredible sight of a sperm whale, all unforgettable moments!

Komandoo
For Steffi the highlight of 2018 was to witness Mantas displaying mating behavior on Fushivaru Thila. They were forming a so-called ‘mating train’ with one female being followed by several males. Sam’s best dive was her first channel crossing on a scooter at Kanuhura Kandu, where she could see plenty of big silvertip sharks, during the surface interval that followed she snorkelled with a massive pod of hundreds of spinner dolphins for a couple of minutes. Marek’s top sighting was a very close encounter with a great Hammerhead Shark at KFFC on a scooter dive. The enormous shark circled the group a few times and disappeared in the blue. Mauro was lucky enough to snorkel with a Whaleshark at Kuredu Sandbank during his first days in the Maldives.

Kuredu
It’s been really difficult to choose – there were so many underwater highlights! Our scooter dives in the channels with countless sharks, including a hammerhead on Fushivaru Kandu were unforgettable for guests and staff alike. Snorkelling with 35 mantas and watching one jump right out of the water was an amazing experience too, as were the whale shark encounters during the past year – these are quite rare in Lhaviyani Atoll so we feel very lucky!

Lily Beach
Lily Beach Dive Team and guests had amazing moments with mantas throughout the whole year and on one occasion there were 12 mantas gliding around divers heads at a cleaning station close by – a very special dive. There was an unforgettable a dive with grey reef sharks getting their teeth cleaned by little fish at Kuda Rah Thila. The biggest surprise for our macro lovers was three different frogfish at one dive site in the South of Ari Atoll!

Vakarufalhi
Vakarufalhi’s location lived up to it’s reputation as being perfect for encountering whale sharks and manta rays – divers at Vakarufalhi got lucky many times spotting these majestic animals; they even had the chance to film at least 15 Manta rays around their cleaning station! Underwater romance touched the hearts of the team during 2018, first with an underwater proposal at Kudhimaa Wreck and then a 30th wedding anniversary celebration on the dive boat – both beautiful moments of the year.

We would like to thank all the guests who dived or snorkelled with us in the past year and we hope to share more incredible underwater adventures with you in 2019.

Happy New Year!