Maamigili Beyru (Whale Shark Point) — Ari Atoll

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Overview

Outer reef along the southern edge of Maamigili island, gazetted in 2009 as part of the South Ari Marine Protected Area to safeguard the only known year-round whale shark aggregation in the Indian Ocean. Juvenile sharks 4-8 m long cruise the shallow reef shelf at 5-15 m feeding on copepods, and the South Ari research programme has logged sightings on more than 70% of days. The dive is a drift along the outer wall where the reef drops past 200 m — manta and mobula rays pass on cleaning rotations, eagle rays glide the slope, and grey reef sharks patrol deeper. Operators run a coordinated radio search; snorkellers stay at the surface while scuba divers hold below 5 m. MPA rules cap boat numbers and forbid touching, flash photography, and motorised approach within 20 m.

Briefing note

Inside the South Ari MPA: no touching, no flash photography, no fins within 3 m of the shark, no chasing. Operators communicate by radio when a shark is spotted; expect 3-5 boats and 20+ snorkellers per encounter during peak season. Best window is the morning slack tide on a sunny day.

What you'll see

8 species curated

Whale shark
year-round
Reef manta ray
seasonal
Peak: May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct · Nov
Mobula ray
seasonal
Peak: Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep · Oct
Eagle ray
year-round
Grey reef shark
year-round
Blacktip reef shark
year-round
Napoleon wrasse
year-round
Yellowfin tuna
seasonal
Peak: Dec · Jan · Feb · Mar · Apr

Sightings evidence

1 record on file

Whale shark
high confidence
Last confirmed
Apr 2026
Recent records
65 within 25 km

Sources & methodology

How we summarise this

We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.

Sources

Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
Wildbook (Sharkbook, Whale Shark, Manta Matcher) — Wild Me
OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
FishBase — FishBase Consortium
Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation

Conditions

Month	Water	Visibility	Current
Jan	27–29 °C	25–35 m	moderate
Feb	27–29 °C	25–35 m	moderate
Mar	28–30 °C	25–35 m	moderate
Apr	28–30 °C	20–30 m	mild
May	28–30 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Jun	27–29 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Jul	27–29 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Aug	27–29 °C	10–20 m	moderate
Sep	27–29 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Oct	28–30 °C	20–30 m	mild
Nov	28–30 °C	25–35 m	moderate
Dec	27–29 °C	25–35 m	moderate

Season calendar

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Peak season highlighted · current month outlined

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