Get ready for the coming new season of diving in the Maldives.

Posted on | November 10, 2009 | No Comments

Season

The Indian Ocean has a great effect on the climate in Maldives by acting as a heat buffer, absorbing, storing, and slowly releasing the tropical heat. The temperature of Maldives ranges between 24 and 33 °C throughout the year. Although the humidity is relatively high, the constant cool sea breezes keep the air moving and the heat mitigated.

The weather in the Maldives is affected by the large landmass of the South Asia to the north. The presence of this landmass causes differential heating of land and water. These factors set off a rush of moisture-rich air from the Indian Ocean over the South Asia, resulting in the southwest monsoon.

Two seasons dominate Maldives’ weather: The dry season associated with the winter northeast monsoon ‘IRUVAA” and the rainy season brought by the summer southwest monsoon “HULANGU”

According to the traditional Maldivian calendar, the IRUVAI begins in December with typically strong, unsettled winds and rough seas that gradually travel down the Maldives from the north. It is divided into nine “Nakaiy” or periods, with the last “Nakaiy” finishing on the April. The “Iruvaa” brings the driest period- the air having a comparatively short sea track compared with that during the remainder of the year.

Current

The exposure of the Maldives to the vast Indian Ocean ensures that an immense body of water is constantly flowing across the plateau on which these atolls are built. Oceanic currents are largely influenced by the direction of the trade winds. They flow from the NE to SW during the Iruvaa and from SW to NE during the Hulhangu. They are of great strength and currents in the channels near Male’ have recorded at four knots or more.

Tidal currents flow according to the height of the tide and the direction of the prevailing winds and are said to be much weaker than oceanic currents, though they causes velocity variations in the flow. At the atoll passages, current streams can be quite irregular due to the islands, reefs and sandy shoals.

Best time to dive

North East monsoon is considered the best period to dive in the Maldives, as a result of continues flowing of water into the atolls specially the channels bringing clear water and lots of food for the pelagic.

Due to the continuous flow of the NE monsoon current, the visibility becomes crystal clear and this is one of the factors that NE monsoon is the best time to dive.

Felidhu atoll; within the range of Live aboard diving, some concentrates on this atoll during the NE monsoon due to the possibility of seeing larger fish life.

Almost all the dive sites are channels in local “Kandu” based dives. The incoming current attracts lager fish and channel crossing has become a common way of performing dives in these channels. The entrances of the channels are at a depth of 28 to 30 meters and the width of these channel are not more than 150 meters.

Fish Life

Due to the NE monsoon’s current these channels entrance are attracted to bigger fish such as gray reef sharks, white tip reef sharks, schooling silver jack fish, tuna, schools of eagle ray and many more. Early morning dive to Hammerhead shark point “Fotteyo Kandu” is also a highlight during this season. Hammerheads are not only seen during the early morning hours here, in fact hammerheads have seen by divers during the normal day diving.

Channels like Miyaru Kandu, Devana Kandu, Diggiri Kandu and Alimatha Dekunu Kandu are well known among the Liveaboards.

Not only Felidhu atoll but other atolls like north and south Male’, Ari atoll, Meenu atoll and Baa atoll are also considered as top diving during the NE monsoon.

If you are booked on diving holidays for this season, I would strongly recommend all the divers to get a current hook, have your scuba gear tuned up and get ready for a new season of diving in the Maldives.

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1. Diving in the South West Monsoon
2. Adventurer 2 concludes its diving season
3. Best of South West Monsoon

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