News
Delve deeper into the Maldives with Regaldive
Regaldive has just introduced the charming Maradhoo Island to its Maldives portfolio. Dubbed by the diving holiday specialist as a ‘liveaboard on dry land’ Maradhoo Island brings together world class exploratory diving with an authentic above-the-water Maldivian experience.
Offering new and exciting encounters for divers of all levels, Maradhoo Island is located on the very southern tip of the Maldives and offers an unparalleled diversity of underwater life. Over 25 sites in the Addu atoll can be reached from the island including exhilarating drift and wall dives, and one of the highlights of the area, Manta Point. In addition to mantas, other regular sightings include reef sharks, turtles, eagle rays, honeycomb and moray eels, barracuda, batfish and unicorn fish. For wreck and photography enthusiasts, the British Loyalty – an oil tanker sunk at the end of WWII, is located just minutes away and is the biggest wreck in the Maldives. Gorgonians, table, black and soft corals can be admired on the main hull, the resident leaf-fish and turtles can be seen near the bow and the three remaining blades of the propeller make for great photographic shots.
Offering a more authentic alternative to mainstream Maldives resorts, guests staying on Maradhoo Island will stay in one of its two small and comfortable guesthouses. Accommodation is full board and meals are taken at a local restaurant, offering divers’ great opportunities to immerse themselves in local life and taste the delicious regional delicacies on offer on the island.
A seven night package with Regaldive costs from £1,479 per person, to include scheduled return flights, inter atoll flights, transfers and seven nights’ full board accommodation, based on two people sharing. A five day dive pack including three boat dives per day costs from £366 per person to include a guide, boat, air, tanks and weights.
For further information or to book, visit www.regaldive.co.uk or call +44 (0)1353 659 999.
Marine Life & Conservation
Komodo National Park found to be Manta Hotspot

Through a collaborative effort between citizen divers, scientists from the Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF), and Murdoch University, a new study reports a large number of manta rays in the waters of Komodo National Park, Indonesian, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, suggesting the area may hold the key to regional recovery of the threatened species.
Reef mantas (Mobula alfredi), which grow up to 5m, tend to reside and feed in shallow, coastal habitats. They also visit ‘cleaning stations’ on coral reefs to have parasites, or dead skin picked off by small fish. Courtship ‘trains’ are also observed adjacent to cleaning stations. In Komodo National Park, manta rays are present year-round, challenging the famous Komodo dragon as the most sought-after megafauna for visitors.
Scientists teamed up with the dive operator community to source identification photographs of manta rays visiting the parks’ waters and submit them to MantaMatcher.org – a crowdsourced online database for mantas and other rays. Most of the photographs came from just four locations from over 20 commonly visited by tourism boats.
“I was amazed by how receptive the local dive community was in helping collect much-needed data on these threatened animals,” said lead author Dr. Elitza Germanov. “With their support, we were able to identify over 1,000 individual manta rays from over 4,000 photographs.”
“People love manta rays—they are one of the most iconic animals in our oceans. The rise of the number of people engaging in SCUBA diving, snorkeling, and the advent of affordable underwater cameras meant that photos and videos taken by the public during their holidays could be used to quickly and affordably scale data collection,” said MMF co-founder and study co-author Dr. Andrea Marshall.
The photographs’ accompanying time and location data is used to construct sighting histories of individual manta rays, which can then be analyzed with statistical movement models. These models predict the likelihood that manta rays are inhabiting or traveling in between specific sites. The study’s results showed that some manta rays moved around the park and others as far as the Nusa Penida MPA (>450 km to the west), but overall, manta rays showed individual preferences for specific sites within the Park.
“I found it very interesting how some manta rays appear to prefer spending their time in some sites more than others, even when sites are 5 km apart, which are short distances for manta rays,” said Dr. Elitza Germanov. “This means that manta rays which prefer sites where fishing activities continue to occur or that are more popular with tourism will endure greater impacts.”
Fishing activities have been prohibited in many coastal areas within Komodo NP since 1984, offering some protection to manta rays prior to the 2014 nationwide protection. However, due to illegal fishing activity and manta ray movements into heavily fished waters, manta rays continue to face a number of threats from fisheries. About 5% of Komodo’s manta rays have permanent injuries that are likely the result of encounters with fishing gear.
The popularity of tourism to these sites grew by 34% during the course of the study. An increase in human activity can negatively impact manta rays and their habitats. In 2019, the Komodo National Park Authority introduced limits on the number of boats and people that visit one of the most famous manta sites.
“This study shows that the places where tourists commonly observe manta rays are important for the animals to feed, clean, and mate. This means that the Komodo National Park should create measures to limit the disturbance at these sites,” said Mr. Ande Kefi, an employee of the Komodo National Park involved with this study. “I hope that this study will encourage tourism operators to understand the need for the regulations already imposed and increase compliance.”
Despite Indonesia’s history with intensive manta ray fisheries, Komodo National Park still retains large manta ray aggregations that with careful ongoing management and threat reduction will benefit regional manta ray populations. The study highlights that marine protected areas that are large enough to host important manta ray habitats are a beneficial tool for manta ray conservation.
For more information about MMF visit their website here.
News
Euro-Divers opens to guests at Alila Kothaifaru Maldives

In celebration of Euro-Divers’ 50 Years of Diving with Friends in the Maldives, the team have opened a new PADI 5 Star Dive Center at Alila Kothaifaru Maldives.

Alila Kothaifaru Maldives retreat lies at the northern edge of the Maldives in the tranquil Raa Atoll, reached via a panoramic 45-minute seaplane voyage from Male. The island has 80 all-pool-villas, 36 of which are over water with a private pool for your enjoyment and 44 beachfront villas designed seamlessly to immerse guests in the natural surroundings. In support of sustainable tourism, Alila hotels adopt Earth Check operating standards, integrating their environments’ natural, physical, and cultural elements.
Raa Atoll is well-known for the excellent scuba diving it offers. The underwater landscape of Raa Atoll is characterized by a high number of thilas scattered inside the lagoons. These underwater coral mountains are magnets for marine life including huge schools of tropical reef fish, a generous splash of colour, iconic bucket-list-must-see marine creatures including sharks, mantas (appearing during the entire year), turtles, and uncrowded dive sites—a perfect diver’s heaven for beginners and experienced divers. We offer a full range of PADI courses for different levels. From November till March, the Manta cleaning station is located 15 minutes away by boat.

The team from Alila Kothaifaru Maldives look forward to welcoming you soon.
Find out more at: www.euro-divers.com/alila-kothaifaru-maldives
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