 Halaveli Zone
Coral Garden* *
This site has small clusters of reef with beautiful
coral and many blue stripped and yellow-back fusilier dashing around the coral. Turtles
and barracuda are sighted here and sometimes nurse sharks and mantas. Generally, white-tip
reef sharks are prowling around on the sandy bottom at 20 to 30 metres.
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Beyru Thila ***
This thila is a long reef lying north to south on
the outer edge of the atoll to the north east of Madivaru. The sea tends to get choppy out
here when there is wind and currents.
Divers can dive the length of the thila on either
the east or west side. Both are interesting with caves and overhangs at 25 to 30 metres.
Scattered around the thila are large tuna, napoleon and plenty of snapper. Eagle rays,
barracuda and grey reef sharks are regularly seen. On the reef top, large coral rocks
offer a change of scenery and sometimes nurse sharks are seen among them.
On the outside of Madivaru is a big reef known as Beyru Madivaru. The reef becomes more shallow at the southern end and on the
outside of this reef hammerhead sharks are known to frequent the deeper waters.
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Dhigu Thila * *
In the channel to the south of Madivaru lies this
narrow, 400 metres long thila running east to west, It is also called Toroka Thila. The
reef top is about 3 to 5 metres in the centre and 10 to 12 metres on the west side. The
reef to the east is deeper and finishes off on an 18 metre plateau that turns towards the
south. On the southern side are caves and overhangs at 22 to 26 metres. There are three
points jutting off the main reef to the south. At the last point on the deep south east
corner are caves at 30 metres. Barracuda, white-tip and grey reef sharks, eagle rays and
sometimes mantas and napoleon can be found here.
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Kari Beyru Thila ***
To teh south and a little to the east of dhigu Thila
lies a long, narrow thila, stretching north to south down the eastern edge of the Atoll.
The east side slopes down to 30 to 35 metres with some caves down deep. The west side
slopes off to 20 to 25 metres and both sides are interesting with an abundance of fish,
especially tuna and snapper. white-tip and grey reef sharks are common here as well as a
couple of large napoleon. The northern end of the thila is at nine to 10 metres sloping
down to 12 to 14 metres at the southern end. There are many large coral rocks and
beautiful small corals here.
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Medhu Thila * * and Kuda Thila * *
These thila's are much smaller and divers can easily
swim around the 30 metre wide Kuda Thila. Depths are between 5 and 25 metres. There are
small caves and some steep walls on both thilas and heavy concentrations of marine life,
including big0eye trevally, sharks and sting rays. On the reef tops are many species of
damselfish, like the three-spot humbug, also butterflyfish, and angelfish.
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Kandholhudhoo Thila lies to the north of the island of Kandholhudhoo and eagle
rays, turtles and sometimes manta rays, can be seen here.
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