South Male Atoll Scuba Diving Sites

Guraidhoo Kandu South

Often considered among the Maldives' most impressive sites for fish life and photography, Guraidhoo Kandu is one that is topographically complex, consisting chiefly on 2 channels and a central reef. It also covers a large area and is really a spot that can be dived several times in different ways and is sometimes subdivided into individual dive sites.

The southern channel (often considered a dive site in its own right) is a stretch that runs for around 300 metres and is flanked on each side by vertical walls, past which you will drift effortlessly in the prevailing current. Where the southern channels meet the abyssal drop at around 35 metres, there is often a lot of action such as jacks, Napoleon wrasse and grey reef sharks.

The reef wall provides plenty of current-free indentations where you can take 5 and check out the resident marine creatures, including honeycomb moray eels and long-jawed squirrelfish. There are an impressive number of soft corals, sea fans, black coral bushes and other sessile colour, particularly inside the channel where at 30 metres there is an archway covered on soft corals - a real Kodak moment in the right light.

Guraidhoo Kandu South Reef Basics: Drift dive
Depth: 5 - >40m
Visibility: 25 - 35m
Currents: Can be strong
Surface conditions: Often choppy
Water temperature: 27 - 30°C
Experience level: Intermediate to advanced
Number of dive sites: 3
Diving season: All year round
Distance: Just off the south coast of Guraidhoo, 32 km south of Male Town
Access: Maldives Liveaboard

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