Banana Reef Schooling Fish
North Male Atoll · Maldives
One of the first dive sites ever discovered in the Maldives and still among the best. The banana-shaped reef crest sits at 5 metres with the outer wall plunging to 30 metres and beyond. The headline act is density: fusilier clouds, snapper aggregations, jack schools and barracuda spirals stack in the water column simultaneously. Sweetlips shelter in overhangs, Napoleon wrasse cruise the reef edge, and the resident turtle population has been documented here for decades.
Conditions
Depth
5 to 30 m
Open water and up
Current
Can be moderate
Can pick up on the edge
Visibility
8 to 15 m
Clearest in the calm season
Water
26 to 30°C
3mm wetsuit
Month by month
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Water (°C) | 26 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 26 |
| Vis (m) | 18 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 15 | 18 | 18 |
| Current | Gentle | Gentle | Gentle | Gentle | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Moderate | Gentle | Gentle |
Your chances of seeing each animal
Schooling yellowback fusilier
Sometimes
About 1 in 3 dives
Giant trevally
Photo: Nikolai Vladimirov · CC BY-NC
Sometimes
About 1 in 3 dives
Oriental sweetlips
Photo: David R · CC BY-NC
Sometimes
About 1 in 3 dives
Green sea turtle
Photo: MARC MARTIN SOLA · CC BY-NC
Sometimes
About 1 in 3 dives
Napoleon wrasse
Photo: David Roche · CC BY-NC
Sometimes
About 1 in 3 dives
Field journal
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