Himendhoo
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Feridhoo Zone
There is 4 km of reef to drift dive in this channel and for convenience it can be devided into 3 parts; the outside corner, the channel and inside. On the outside corner, the reef slopes slowly to 15 metres before falling away steeply to 30 metres. It then steps out and drops again to the shadowy depths below. The visibility is usually very good and hammerhead sharks have been seen here. A large coral encrusted, enchor, was lifted from the outside reef at 25 metres by Moofushi dive shool in 1994. No other remains were found in the vicinity of the anchor. The anchor is on display at the resort. About 150 metres inside the channel is the best place to start with an ingoing current. There is a long overhang starting at 20 metres and rising to 5 metres here. Beautiful seafans and whips cling to the bottom and walls of the overhang and inside are emperor engelfish, sweetlip and squirrel fish while outside hover black snapper and midnight snapper. Further inside the channel, the reef again exposes its interios with more crevices pluging from 5 metres back down to 20 metres. Further across the channel in 35 metres are several large outcrops of reef where white-tips and grey reef sharks are found. There are also barracuda and big-toothed tuna.
In 4 km wide Himendhoo Kandu is a large thila called "Dhonkaloo Thila". The best diving here is on the south side, which has an excellent wall with overhangs and plenty of fish life. Mantas are regularly seen here during the north east monsoon season and whale sharks often been sighted in Himendhoo Kandu.
Fesdhoo House Reef * *
Fesdhoo resort divers are fortunate to have a house reef with an excellent wll dive virtually on their bungalow door step. The reef drops to 20 metres and has plenty of hard coral, large morays, octopus, stone fish and lion fish. There are also sting rays on the bottom and occassionally eagle rays.
Close by, only 3 minutes by Dhoani from Fesdhoo, is "Fedhoo Top * ", an exciting reef with the best diving at depths from 15 - 20 metres. There are many caves, some with lobsters. Fish life includes turtles, blue-stripped snapper and lion fish.
Fesdhoo Wreck * * *
The wreck of this 30 metres coastal trawler lies upright on the bottom at 29 metres with the bow facing almost north. The top of the wheel house is at 24 metres and the propeller is at 27 metres. Coral is already well established and a couple of good size black coral bushes are growing of the stern. Among the superstructure are moray eels and in the engine rooms are big grouper.
The wreck lies at the end of a small thila that is about 50 metres out from Villingili Falhu. The top of the thila is at 12 metres and is usually visible from the surface. There is an extensive soft and hard coral growth all over the thila and plenty of fish life but there are few caves or intersting rock formations.
Diving Hints: This is an excellent all round dive that includes the main reef the thila and the wreck. The wreck is easy and safe to penetrate, so bring your torch. A good dive plan is to begin the dive at the thila, descend immediately to the wreck at the eastern end, then return to the main reef while the thila to finish of the dive.
Maalhoss Thila * * * (Blue Caves)
On the northern side of Maalhoss in Maalhohu Uthuru Kandu is "Maalhoss Thila", otherwise known as "Blue Caves". The top of the thila is about 6 metres and on the south side is a line of caves strating at around 7 metres. The caves are more shallow on the east side and descend one after the other down to about 27 metres on the western side. The ceilings are covered in soft corals in a mixture of colours, mostly white but also blue and violet. The snowy coloured soft corals is among the finest to be seen in Ari Atoll and the decorated caves make a surreal back drop for underwater photographers. Around the island of Feridhoo are many reefs and thilas well worth exploring. A good start is at Berucolo Falhu where there is reasonable diving on the west side. Nearby on the west side is Berucolo Thila, starting at about 4 metres.
Dhigaafaru *
Three kilometres east of Feridhoo is a reef with the best diving on the western corner. It has steep walls to 20 metres with some crevices and caves between 10 - 20 metres. There is one big cave with the swim-through on the corner at 10 metres. Sting rays are seen on teh sandy floors of the caves and some small morays are on the slopes. There are many butterflyfish includign the tear drop butterfly fish.
Mathaggahaa Faru *
Eight kilometer east of Feridhoo is a long, effortless drift dive suited to beginner divers. There are some large deep caves with sandy floors between 10 and 20 metres allowing easy and controlled access. Inside are some small black coral bushes with oyster shells. On the reef are large sea anemones with Clark anemone fish. There are also juvenile sweetlip, common lion fish, puffer fish and blue trigger fish. There is plenty of invertibrate life including large sea-squirts in the shallower water and banded shrimps.
Donagali Thila * *
On the north side of Madoo-Donagali is a 150 metre long thila with the top at 9 metres. There is a sandy bottom at 25 metres between the main reef and the thila on the outside the depth drops to 30 metres.
There are 3 peaks to this 150 metre long thila that rise to 6 metres. The saddles between them are at depths around 20 metres. The eat side drops to sand at 30 metres while the west side is more shallow to 20 metres. There are caves at the south end sometimes with nurse sharks. There is fine coral, large lion fish and mantas in March.
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