Tiger Harbour

Fuvahmulah's signature dive — a tiger shark encounter at the entrance to the main harbour on the island's southeast coast. Fuvahmulah is a solitary oceanic island in the far south of the Maldives (Gnaviyani Atoll), ringed by deep water, and decades of fish-market offcuts dumped at the harbour have drawn a large resident population of tiger sharks — several hundred identified, mostly females up to 5 m — seen reliably year-round, often several in one dive. It's a shallow, easy dive well within Open Water range: the harbour-entrance shallows are mostly sand and rock around 6–10 m, dropping to a wall of sand ridges at 10–35 m with little or no coral as it slopes into the blue. Divers back-roll from the dhoni, settle onto the sand and hold position while the sharks circle and pass, sometimes within a metre; the dive is guided and briefed, with fixed descent and ascent points as harbour boat traffic runs overhead. Silvertip sharks join the tigers, while giant trevallies, rainbow runners, barracudas and jackfish patrol the blue and flounders, moray eels, leaf fish and lionfish work the sand and wall. Boat entry.

Also known as: Tiger Shark Point, Tiger Zoo,