Diving at Maldives?

[Nishan]

Hi Finn,


Disadvantages:
Limited amount of healthy hard coral and very limited amount of soft coral
Very minimal macro life
Relatively low fish biodiversity compared to SE Asia or even Red Sea
Didn't see a single shark
Very expensive compared to SE Asia diving

Stayed at Reethi Beach Resort. While it is nice for honeynooners, I definitely do not recommend this resort for experienced divers because while the staff are friendly and competent the management has some strange and very annoying rules:
1. All divers must have a snorkel when diving
2. No dive knives (which to me is important safety equipment especially since some of the reefs have fishing net fragments or fishing lines draped on them)
3. Second dive and follow-on dives of the day limited to 20-22 meters

the coral varies a lot. granted it has suffered a lot from coral bleaching but some dive sites have recovered well. agree about macro not being great. you could find the odd nudibranch, shrimp or frogfish but its a bit poor. overall biodiversity is lower than SE Asia but i think in terms of sheer numbers the Maldives is as good as most places. the sharks are around, you just need to dive the right sites, although admittedly, Baa Atoll where Reethi Resort is located is not great for sharks. the dive operator obviously did not take you to any manta stations. the Maldives has some excellent manta sightings that include large mantas.

as for prices, resorts are expensive but liveaboards vary a lot. i know of trips from $1000-1500 for 7 days, on good boats. thats a deal compared to most places. i think Maldives liveaboards are no more expensive than most other places.

all the rules mentioned are specific to that resort, not the Maldives. the only national rule that would affect you is a max depth limit of 30m and no deco diving. there are no time limits and no rules to exit with the group. you're only expected to have a buddy.

i think people need to realize that Maldives is a big place. nearly 1200 islands spread over several hundred KM from north to south. so obviously there are differences among atolls, just like how diving varies a lot across Indo and the Phils.

 

[Shaff]

Hi,

I'm from the Maldives and those rules are specifically to that resort. And like Nishan has stated above, they didn't take you to the right dive sites to see the sharks. I've dived in Baa Atoll countless number of times and I've seen loads of sharks there. Ok, compared to SE Asia, we don't have that much macro, but the diving is totally different from the rest of the world here. The currents, the submerged thilas, the number of Mantas and Whale sharks we see almost everyday. I just think you just had a bad dive operator. The Maldives Dive Regulation states that the maximum depth for divers is 30m and no deco diving. There is no time limit. I just returned from a liveaboard trip with a group of Indonesians. I let them dive as long as they want!

Cheers

Shaff

:: Aqua Dreams Imaging ::

 

[Shaff]

I guess you haven't dived the best dive sites all over the Maldives.

Quality of the diving notwithstanding, I hear to many negative stories about Maldives government and never plan to dive there.

 

[hmp2z]

So are there any resorts in particular that you'd recommend staying at, that are friendly to divers and don't have the 60 minute rule? We would be diving there in September of next year. I'd read a review of Vilamendhoo Resort, and it sounded pretty good and quite affordable. I've read that liveaboards are the best way to dive the Maldives, but they're a bit out of our price range, so we're looking for a good land-based alternative. We both have our advanced certification with Nitrox.

Thank you!
Heather W

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Along the lines of the (most) recent political activity, this pretty much sums it up believe it or not...

http://www.tourism.gov.mv/downloads/news/2011/Statement-tourists-5-2011.pdf

Wow thanks for the link

 

[beautybelow]

So are there any resorts in particular that you'd recommend staying at, that are friendly to divers and don't have the 60 minute rule? We would be diving there in September of next year. I'd read a review of Vilamendhoo Resort, and it sounded pretty good and quite affordable. I've read that liveaboards are the best way to dive the Maldives, but they're a bit out of our price range, so we're looking for a good land-based alternative. We both have our advanced certification with Nitrox.

Thank you!
Heather W

I always hear people saying that liveaboards are "out of our price range".

I am guessing right now there are liveaboards here in the Maldives that are quite competitive price wise with the resorts. Just do a few searches.

Look closely at the resort prices after you factor in diving for a week.

As far as the dreaded 60 minute rule goes, Isn't it like that at a lot of resort destinations? Maybe even less? And at 24 dives I think you will find 60 minutes is a long enough dive for you here most of the time.

 

[beautybelow]

Wow thanks for the link

After watching the rest of the world protest on the news and seeing it personally here, I would say that Maldivians are amateurs when it comes to protesting. Hopefully it will stay that way.

 

[hmp2z]

Our reason for looking at resorts, rather than a liveaboard, is that I like the idea of a variety of dining options, as well as shore diving. I sometimes get stomach issues, so diving on someone else's schedule can be problematic for me. I'd appreciate any resort suggestions that you all have to offer!

We're looking for something moderately priced, with a reputable dive shop, and with good diving for the August/September time period. I've read that different areas have different best time periods for diving, because of the eastern & western monsoons, so knowing our time parameters may help focus dive resort suggestions. If we could see mantas or whale sharks, both of which we've heard are in this area during this time period, that would be outstanding.

Cheers!
Heather W

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Unfortunately the 60 minute dive restriction is a deal breaker for us. We don't like short dives esp when we go to a lot of expense to get to a destination. Our last PNG trip we had a few short dives but average dive time over 21 dives was still 64 minutes. The dive we enjoyed the most was one hour and 50.

We never entered deco never went below 30 M by our choice. We balanced depths so we could have longer bottom times to enjoy the fishlife and get as many pics and memories as we could. We are qualified to make these decisions for ourselves and do not need or want them dictated by dive operators or anybody else. There are a lot of places we can go to do the kind of diving we like but obviously the Maldives is not one of them.

 

[gee13]

Bowlofpetunias I dont think you can discard some of the worlds finest diving because of that. It depends on who you dive with. We had an operator who was fairly liberal with this rule once they were aware we were experienced divers. Its hard to generalise diving in the Maldives. Having done liveaboard and resort trips the liveaboard option is definitely the best as you get to visit most of the best sites. Once you experience seeing whale sharks, mamtas and hammerheads all in one day its hard to beat that experience.