BLOG

The Maldives is well-known as one of the best locations in the world for scuba diving and for good reason too… Countless beautiful reefs to explore, an abundance of marine life, high chances of encounters with ‘big stuff’, fascinating critters and amazing conditions are what draws divers to the Maldives all year round. The Prodivers teams across the Maldives have been looking back over the past year and here we share their 2019 highlights with you:

Hurawalhi
One of our guests, a regular at the resort, spotted an ornate eagle ray more than 20 times on the top reef, it was swimming on the top reef between the villas. 2019 has been a great year for frogfish – there are two giant red frogfish and one clown frogfish living on our house reef and the giant one became pregnant! During a fluoro night dive, we spotted a huge sponge crab at Anemone Thila and we had an entire week of whale shark encounters in November which were enjoyed by both snorkellers and divers. 2019 has also seen the beginning of our coral line project and we are excited to see how it develops during 2020.

Komandoo
The diving highlights of 2019 were our scooter dives in the channels, especially KFFK which, once again, has been the top dive site for big fish sightings such as countless grey reef sharks, massive lemon and silvertip sharks and squadrons of eagle rays. We also had an amazing and unexpected close encounter with a great hammerhead shark at Fushifaru Thila at the incredible depth of just 14 meters! During our Noonu Atoll trip, Komandoo guests were lucky enough to spot and swim along with a beautiful and rare bowmouth guitarshark at Orimas Thila.

Kuredu
Kuredu’s Diving highlights for 2019 were full of an amazing variety of marine life; amongst others we had an incredible encounter with a baby ornate eagle ray on Fushivaru Outreef, as well as a Leopard Shark on Kukulhu Outreef both in August. An unexpected and incredible time was had in October with Whaleshark mania around the east side of the atoll.

Lily Beach
As always, the highlights for our divers were the numerous whale shark and manta ray encounters, some of the gentle giants were even spotted on our house reef this year! The number of grey reef, silver tip and nurse sharks increased in South Ari Atoll and surprised our guests on dive sites very close to Lily Beach next to schools of eagle rays. This always reminds us how lucky we are to be based in the South and the number of repeater guests coming to Lily Beach shows that it is always worth to return visit!

Vakarufalhi
In 2019 Manta Point and South Ari Marine Protected Area (SAMPA) were visited by whale sharks, mantas and, therefore, lucky divers from Vakarufalhi thoughout the entire year with the highest number of encounters being in October. For many repeater couples, 2019 happened to be the year for their 10th visit or birthdays, which gave even more reason to celebrate and of course the privilege to dive free of charge! Vakarufalhi team is also happy to honour Dive Centre manager, Antonio’s, 10 year anniversary in the Prodivers family.

Innahura
After the opening of Innahura in March 2019, we discovered many new reefs in the South East of the Lhaviyani Atoll. On one of our recent exploration dives close to Innahura, we discovered a shallower reef where many different species of hard corals are flourishing. Another highlight for the Team on Innahura were the two Sargassum Frogfish, which they found drifting in a ghost net inside the atoll. In the last couple of months, our two favourite corners, Meyyafushi and Faadhoo Corner, have rewarded our divers with sightings of a whale shark, manta rays, silvertip sharks and even a hammerhead shark!

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 2020.

Happy New Year!