Snorkel Spotter turned 12 years old this week! It’s been a great resource for us to capture and share our extensive house reef explorations (over 100 different house reefs). And various resorts and guests have embraced it as well to do the same, but none more than Gili Lankanfushi and Baros with 22 spottings logged each. Here is the top ten table: Gili Lankanfushi 22 Baros Maldives 22 Gangehi 21 Kurumba 15 Dusit Thani 13 Thudu Fushi 12 Veligandu 12 Biyadhoo 12 Coco Palm Dhuni Kolhu 12 Fihalhohi 11 ..read more

A short montage of “couples on the reef” from our July 2022 snorkeling adventures Happy Snorkelling Day 2022! Reefs in the Maldives have taken a beating in recent years from warming ocean temperatures, higher water acidity, disruption from development, Crown of Thorns Startfish, and El Nino. But one of the most satisfying discoveries from our 2022 research tour last week was the prevalence of promising coral growth. The block corals in particular (eg. Diploria and Porites) seem to be faring the best (in fact, recent research published in Global Change Biology supports the hardiness of certain ..read more

The Maldives seascape is a world of extremes. The house reefs are often dramatic, colourful, textured, vibrant spectacles. The lagoons, on the other hand, can be vast expanses of underwater deserts of endless, featureless white sand. A number of resorts have introduced a range of Reefscaping initiatives to brighten up their lagoon, but none more funky than the work of Diverland (the resident dive operation) at Summer Island. In the lakes of England where they teach diving, they submerge bicycles, shopping trolleys, anything to provide some visual interest to the otherwise boring landscape. Su ..read more

Kudos to the resort s who celebrated World Snorkeling Day yesterday… Kuredu – “Kuredu is pleased to announce its very first Snorkelling Day! The celebration of this wonderful sport and the magnificent coral reefs of Lhaviyani Atoll will take place on Sunday, 30th July 2017, at 15:00. Snorkelling is one of Kuredu’s major draws: both the lagoon and the reef offer a wonderful array of marine life that will most likely be one of the highlights of your Maldives’ holiday.” [see photo below] Hurawalhi – “In honour of the Maldives’ reef ecosystem and in celebration of the wonderful sport that is sno ..read more

Maldives may be the best snorkelling in the world (if Calsberg did snorkelling destinations…), and alternatives like Indonesia might rival it, but here are a few places that definitely do not.  Here is the definitely Maldives Complete list of ‘unconventional’ snorkeling  (shall we say generously) in the world (not surprising at all that 2 on the list are in the United Kingdom)… Bog Snorkeling – Wales, United Kingdom: In Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales crowds watch competitors swim up and down a 133 meter bog filled with sulphurous, weedy water. Some wear silly costumes but all entrants must ..read more

With the rising costs and declining reefs of the Maldives, one of the increasingly frequent FAQs is “Is there anywhere else like the Maldives”.  In particular, given the Maldives’ distinctive snorkeling, “Are there any places which rival the Maldives’ world-leading snorkeling experience.” One of the more commonly cited possibilities for tropical resorts with tranquil isolation as well great snorkeling and diving is Indonesia.  We recently took a trip to Bali for a friend’s wedding and thought I would add on a week to visit Komodo, Indonesia and check out the snorkeling scene. We sta ..read more

With the Christmas shopping season formally launched, the biggest shopping day of the year, “Black Friday”, is upon us. I’m a big snorkelling aficionado, so any gear to help me peer into the aquatic world is always a hit with me. One of the most coveted items I’ve seen is the “Splash and Play” snorkel float by Bestway in Club Med Finolhu’s “The Boutique”.   I’ve seen a few resorts offer them for use by guests, but I haven’t seen any you can buy until now.  Just perfect for even lazier underwater gazing while soaking up the sun’s rays. Now if I can just get Santa to bring me an ..read more

The Maldives lagoons. There aquamarine pools are perhaps the feature that most defines the distinctive Maldives topology from above. And yet for many Maldives aficionados and avid snorkelers, they often dismissed and disregarded. The “main event” for the Maldives’ world leading snorkelling is the ‘house reef drop off’. Where the coral shallows plummet into the deep blue ornamented with a living collage of vibrant sealife. Lori and I often feel these unsung littoral shoals are underappreciated. On our first visit, we knew nothing about the drama of the house reef and spent our first days happi ..read more

For those of you who can’t make even a brief stop over to the Maldives, but still wish to explore the wonders of its world famous coral reefs, I highly recommend Kristen Marhaver’s TED talk “How We’re Growing Baby Corals to Rebuild Reefs”… “Coral reefs are farmers. They provide food, income and food security for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Coral reefs are security guards. The structures that they build protect our shorelines from storm surge and waves, and the biological systems that they house filter the water and make it safer for us to work and play. Coral reefs are che ..read more

Today is International Water Safety Day. So time for a quick edition of Maldives QI… Q: What is the greatest danger of water fatality in the Maldives? A: Eaten by sharks? Q: Buzzz…Nope (in fact, the Maldives has not had a single report of a shark attack on a human) A: An adrenalin sport like scuba diving? Q: Buzzz…Nope. Nearly all scuba diving is run by very high quality PADI dive centres or liveaboards with very high safety standards and one of the strongest safety records in for diving in the world (contributed by the fact that many dive sites are not overly deep and are often relatively she ..read more