Emboodhoo Canyon

A drift dive on the Emboodhoo Faru reef in South Malé (Kaafu) Atoll, in the atoll's northeast near the Vaadhoo channel, reached by boat from Malé and the South Malé resorts. Its signature is the canyon itself — a narrow passageway between a coral block that has broken away and the main reef. Inside the canyon the water is more sheltered and the life is small and colourful: schools of oriental sweetlips, grass and fan corals, sea slugs and plenty of other reef fish, with the overhangs sitting around 8–18 m. Step outside the canyon and it becomes a different dive — the current usually runs medium to high, and that's where the bigger animals patrol: grey reef, white-tip and nurse sharks, eagle rays, dogtooth tuna, napoleon wrasse and turtles. It's worked as a drift, with the outer reef asking more of you in current than the canyon does. Boat entry.