Dharavandhoo Corner

One of Baa Atoll's most popular manta dives, on the northeastern corner of Dharavandhoo island, close to the famous Hanifaru Bay. Since diving is banned inside Hanifaru to protect the wildlife, this reef is the next best thing — mantas feeding and cleaning on scuba. The top reef is as shallow as 3 m, making it an easy Open Water dive: you start at the corner where the reef faces open sea (good for passing pelagics and schooling fish) and settle by the shallow coral flats to wait, with two manta cleaning stations, one around 8 m. At the stations, mantas hover while cleaner wrasse work; when feeding conditions line up they put on a show — chain feeding at the surface with mouths agape, barrel-rolling somersaults, and cyclone feeding where several spiral together into a vortex. It's also a focus for manta socialising and courtship, so you may catch males pursuing females around the stations; whale sharks turn up too, though less predictably. Best on the southwest monsoon, May to November — September especially — timed with the Hanifaru aggregations, though the site is always good for a surprise. Boat entry.