Hanifaru news

Just came back from a trip to Maldives. We spent 2 days in Hanifaru at Baa Atoll and then moved on to Noonu, Lhaviyani, and North Male Atolls.
We did not see big numbers of mantas at Hanifaru but we consistently saw 5-6 of them outside the lagoon at the cleaning stations.
In fact we did not even dive inside the lagoon because the mantas were not there (apparently the conditions were not met for manta feeding frenzies).
I was wondering if anyone else has been to Hanifaru this year and have they seen big numbers of mantas inside the lagoon?

We just came back from a trip to Hanifaru Sept. 17-28,2011. We didn't see any mantas in Hanifaru and none at all in the Baa Atoll. We did see some mantas in a sandy area in the Ari Atoll and we saw two mantas at the cleaning station at Manta Point. I should point out that three of our group saw a whale shark in the Ari Atoll. I was told by one of the crew on our boat that the whole season at Hanifaru has not been good. I am putting up a detailed trip report on this forum.

toddlich:

We just came back from a trip to Hanifaru Sept. 17-28,2011. We didn't see any mantas in Hanifaru and none at all in the Baa Atoll. We did see some mantas in a sandy area in the Ari Atoll and we saw two mantas at the cleaning station at Manta Point. I should point out that three of our group saw a whale shark in the Ari Atoll. I was told by one of the crew on our boat that the whole season at Hanifaru has not been good. I am putting up a detailed trip report on this forum.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the feedback toddlich. Sorry to hear that you have not been happy with your trip.

My trip has been just about satisfactory, the dive guide and the crew were nice and helpful, but the dive site selection could have been better - that is, compared to my previous trips to Maldives. We were diving mostly on the east side of the atolls where the visibility was not great, in my humble opinion it would have been better to mix it with some dives on the west side for better visibility and good channel dives But I still love Maldives and will go back. by the way!

I am just interested to learn about the frequency of the big manta congregations at Hanifaru. It seems that this year it might not happen at all. We also did see a few mantas at the Lankan manta point in the North Male atoll.