Baa Atoll & South Ari Atoll
The Maldives is one of the best places on Earth to share the water with the ocean's gentle giants. These thousand-odd coral islands sit in the middle of the Indian Ocean, right on the path of the plankton blooms that draw manta rays and whale sharks in close to the reefs, and the water is so warm and clear that you can meet them with nothing more than a mask, snorkel and fins. There is no sight in the Maldives quite like a manta ray banking slowly overhead, or the broad, spotted back of a whale shark sliding past in the blue.
For the mantas, the great gathering place is Hanifaru Bay in Baa Atoll, a small, plankton-rich cove that fills with reef mantas through the southwest monsoon. When the current and tide are right, dozens of them swim in to feed at once, looping and somersaulting through the soup of plankton in one of the ocean's most extraordinary spectacles. Mantas glide along reefs and cleaning stations across many of the atolls too, so even outside the bay there is a good chance of meeting one on a morning boat trip from your island.
Whale sharks, the largest fish in the sea and utterly harmless, are the other great draw, and the Maldives is one of the few places you can find them all year round. The reliable spot is South Ari Atoll, a protected stretch of reef on the atoll's southern rim where these gentle filter feeders cruise the shallows month after month. We arrange guided boat excursions to both, timed to the seasons and the tides, so you set out with a licensed crew who know exactly where and when to find them and how to share the water respectfully.
