Maldives - Nation of Islands Sun, sand and sea, a thousand ‘Robinson Crusoe’ islands, massive lagoons with different depths and infinite shades of blue and turquoise, dazzling underwater coral gardens. About 1192 officially recognised islands are spread out in a vast area of over 90,000 sq.km, which extends for 754 km in a latitudinal direction and a 118 km longitudinal direction.
Photo by Joerg Aebi
The ring-shaped arrangement of the madreporic reef sit´s on volcanic origin, due to it sinking during the interglacical period. The development of coral-producing colonies, in fact, could only take place where the presence of dissolved oxygen and of sunlight are greater, for which reason the polyps were obliged to progressively raise their constructions along the old perimeter of the submerged island. The Maldives are recognised to be one of the finest dive spots in the world, with over 1200 species of fish and a myriad of invertebrates, which can be found in it´s faszinating underwater world.
The quality of individual dive sites and marine parks is influenced by the season which in turn affects both the underwater visibility and the marine life. Nomatter which season you may choose, MY Mariana cruises to those premium dive sites so that divers are likely to encounter various shark species such as white tip, grey reef shark and hammer heads, turtles, manta rays, dolphins, spotted eagle rays and large groups of jack fish are sighted. Apart schools of tropical reef fish you will also encounter along side macro life the delicate leaf fish, goby, shrimps, nudi branche, ghost pipe fish and other rare species.