Marine Life

With over 700 varieties of fish that have been seen around the lovely coral reefs and atolls of the Maldives, Scuba Diving is one of the best ways to experience the spectacular underwater world. Crown & Champa Resorts offers the ideal opportunity to start your diving adventure, expand your knowledge of our marine life or add a few more dives to your log.

 

The teams of professional and friendly dive instructors on the islands are ready to make your stay in the Maldives an unforgettable one!

 

In the South Ari Atoll, Vilamendhoo Island Resort & Spa is the ideal locations to start your scuba diving adventures. With a plethora of tropical fish, the atoll also offers sightings of the majestic Whale Shark and Manta Rays. The house reefs are spectacular with budding corals and located a short swim from the shores. The atoll also offers prime dive sites such as Kuda Rah Thila, Broken Rock and a variety of shipwrecks to explore.

 

Although Veligandu Island Resort & Spa is located in one of the relatively smaller atolls, the North Ari Atoll, there are 18 dive sites on offer. The atoll is famous for the abundance of reef sharks and dive sites that range from easy-going to more challenging for experienced divers. The types of dive sites include thilas, channels, walls and reefs such as the premier dive sites of the Atoll, the Rasdhoo Reef and Madivaru Corner.

 

 

Meeru Island Resort & Spa in the North Male Atoll offers boat dives to all the best dive sites in the atoll, including Fairytale Reef, Helegeli Thila and Lankan Manta Point with the Manta Trust Marine Biologist. With the ongoing Manta research, each day presents a new opportunity to log as many manta sightings as possible.

 

Over in the Lhaviyani Atoll, popularly known as the sea turtle hub, dozens of hawksbill and green sea turtles have been recorded on Komandoo Island Resort & Spa’s House Reef. Kuredu Island Resort & Spa is located near the aptly named Kuredu Express and Kuredu Caves that are filled with an abundance of marine life, including eagle rays, grey reef sharks, large schools of jackfish, giant sweetlips, napoleons, green sea turtles and stingrays.

 

The rocky dive site, Mashura is one of the famous out reefs on the eastern end of the Lhaviyani Atoll, ideal for diving guests at Hurawalhi Island Resort. Here, you can expect to see many scorpion fish and honeycomb moray eels, humpback snappers, yellow snappers, cleaner shrimp, sweetlips and red-tailed butterfly fish.

 

Book your stay at any of the resorts by clicking on the name and add a fantastic underwater experience to your holiday in the Maldives.

World Turtle Day, May 23, is an annually observed awareness day that aims to raise attention, knowledge and respect for turtles around the world. Here, in the Maldives, precious Sea Turtles are one of the frequently spotted residents of the underwater world.

 

Guests who enjoy snorkeling and diving around the lagoons often spot the 5 Sea Turtle species that are most prominent in the Maldives. Namely, the Green Sea Turtle, Hawksbill, Olive Ridley, Loggerhead and Leatherback.

 

Although these have been spotted all around the various Atolls, the Lhaviyani Atoll is known as the hub for Green and Hawksbill Sea Turtles. So far, 170 Green Sea Turtles and 103 Hawksbill Turtles have been identified. Hawksbill Turtles are known to frequent Komandoo Island Resort & Spa’s House Reef, where 24 of the 103 identified in the atoll were spotted.

 

Kuredu Island Resort & Spa dedicated the day towards educational tours and the highlight of the day, the release of rehabilitated Sea Turtles with Dr. Stephanie Köhnk, the resident Sea Turtle Biologist and Olive Ridley Project team member.

 

Guests from 5-Star Hurawalhi Island Resort were also in attendance for the special occasion. Hurawalhi has aptly listed Turtle Snorkeling with Marine Biologist as one of their must-do Bucket List holiday experiences.

 

 

 

Loggerhead and Leatherback Turtles have been spotted more in the Ari Atoll, were Vilamendhoo Island Resort & Spa is located in the southern most part of the Atoll. The Resort, known for its fantastic House Reef and marine life, hosted an educational presentation with guidelines to observe when swimming with Sea Turtles, whether snorkeling or diving.

 

Meeru Island Resort & Spa recently introduced the Turtle Explorer Excursion, designed to bring you closer to these ancient creatures in a respectful and mindful way. Guests can explore two of the best reefs of North Male’ Atoll including Turtle Reef.

 

Crown & Champa Resorts across the Atoll are continuously providing guidelines, information and educational tours to raise awareness on our shelled friends. Most notably, the Resorts have made efforts towards protecting Sea Turtles together with organizations such as the Olive Ridley Project, Olive Ridley Project, Marine Savers, Prodivers Maldives, Ocean Group Maldives and Euro-Divers Maldives.

 

Read our 8 quick facts and trivia about Sea Turtles for more information.

The tropical Maldives contains 26 atolls covering 90 000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean. Our ocean is our future. To celebrate World Ocean Day, help our Crown & Champa Resorts to keep our ocean healthy.

 

Climate change and the “El Nino” phenomenon had led to coral reefs worldwide being affected in a global bleaching event over the past two years. In 2016, 60% of the Maldives coral was affected and over the past year, the Maldives government and our Resorts hosted ongoing efforts to revitalize the corals and protect the Indian Ocean, including reduced usage of plastic, reef & lagoon cleaning activities, as well as coral planting projects.

 

In the North Malé Atoll and a 55-minute speedboat transfer from Velana International Airport, Meeru Island Resort & Spa continues to support the preservation of the Maldives marine life. Together with the Euro-Divers team, Meeru facilitates both learning and interactive events to encourage awareness, conservation and coral growth.

 

A scenic 20-minute seaplane transfer takes you to Veligandu Island Resort & Spa, a paradise island that offers beach and house reef cleaning events for guests to take part in. Vilamendhoo Island Resort & Spa is renowned for its spectacular house reef. A 25-minute seaplane toward the South Ari Atoll leads you to this diver’s haven, which has already installed two coral growing platforms. Guests participated in installing the third during their World Environment Day event on June 5, 2017.

 

In the Lhaviyani Atoll, a scenic 40 to 45-minute seaplane transfer away, Hurawalhi Island Resort and the Marine Biology Center with a resident Marine Biologist, leads continuous research efforts towards conserving our marine eco-system. Komandoo Island Resort & Spa and Kuredu Island Resort & Spa actively organize reef cleaning and awareness projects involving guests, the most recent being for World Environment Day on Monday June 5, 2017.

 

The Maldives corals have shown significant amounts of recovery. Colorful tropical fish can still be seen at any of our top dive sites, along our Resort shores and even at the foot of our Water Villas. Help us protect our beautiful underwater world and Indian Ocean on your next stay with Crown & Champa Resorts.

 

“Oceans are the lungs of our planet and the very foundations of life. They provide most of the oxygen we breathe”