Where is hanifaru bay in maldives

Explore the atolls, seasons, and pro tips in this free 37 page destination guide. Located on the southeastern side of Baa Atoll, Hanifaru Bay overlooks a deep-water channel that separates the island from neighbouring Dharavandoo. This unique structure acts like a giant funnel, driving high concentrations of plankton deeper into the bay and closer to the surface - creating the perfect conditions for a bonafide filter-feeding frenzy. This high concentration of plankton is the reason why the manta rays gather here in such huge numbers - the more food there is, the more mantas join in the feeding!

It is this extraordinary behaviour that has made Hanifaru Bay so famous. Measuring little more than the size of a football field, tiny Hanifaru Bay is the marine highlight of Baa Atoll - even of the Maldives as a whole. For local fishermen, the bay was known as a rich whale shark hunting ground before dive operators began to descend on the area in the s.

In this day and age, such unique places rarely stay secret for long, and as word of the incredible numbers of manta rays and whale sharks spread, Hanifaru Bay became overloaded with an unprecedented influx of boats and divers. Realising that tourism at the site was unsustainable, the Maldivian Government intervened.

Regulations put in place included a limit on the number of visitors, time restrictions within the bay, and bans on scuba diving and fishing. While diving is no longer permitted in the bay, snorkelling certainly is. If you are looking for a private resort, Baa Atoll has plenty to pick from, and all offer trips to Hanifaru. More affordable options can be found on the local island of Dharavandhoo, which lies just across the channel, overlooking Hanifaru Bay.

Dharavandhoo is just a twenty-minute flight or a two hour speedboat journey from the international airport in Male, making it very easy to reach. When the tide comes, the lucky snorkel lovers come to see and capture the seething, spinning feast.

As a rule, feeding manta is akin to ballet over a coral reef. However, due to the closed space and a large number of animals, everyone forget about the status quo. Their natural rhythm of feeding is replaced by a crazy devouring, which leads to complete disorganization, as if hundreds of cars hit each other with bumpers.

Watching manta feeding in Hanifaru Bay is an unforgettable sight. Manta Rays come to the bay only after the tide, first one by one, and then suddenly the number can increase to individuals that are in the bay from 2 to 4 hours. This small underwater area in combination with a rich plankton soup, changed the natural feeding habits of these graceful creatures, whose wingspan can reach up to 3.

Mantas usually feed in a power-law manner, being a pattern of behavior when the body rolls and swims at the surface to filter water with plankton through the head with wide open mouths, and which then goes back through the gills. Tourists flock to this closed soup bowl to watch the "cyclone feeding" manta. During mass feeding, 50 or more manta line up with tails and twist a giant funnel with its fins, where, like in a vacuum cleaner, plankton is pulled in.

If the number increases to , the manta spiral spirals out of control and chaos ensues. Undoubtedly, it is necessary to become witnesses of this show at least once in a life. In the period from May to November each year, during the South-West monsoon, on certain days the phases of the moon massively increase plankton in the bay.

Today, Hanifaru Bay is considered the world's largest manta rays feeding station. For hundreds of years, Hanifaru was known to the locals, who often visited this site for whale shark hunting. In the mids, the place was opened by divers and such a spectacle was not kept secret for a long time, and soon up to 14 boats tried to squeeze into this small area daily, waiting for a spectacular underwater show. National Geografic magazine added fuel to the fire by posting photos and videos of feeding Mantas.

A a dramatic improvement came in , when the Ministry of Fisheries which is also authorized by the law on the creation of special reserves , decided to lease Hanifaru Bay on a long-term basis, which included development for industrial purposes.

The Bluepeace and other interested parties took action, and successful protests put an end to industrial development in Hanifaru. Understanding that the bay will turn into a circus arena and the situation will steadily influence the ecology of the area, an active life position was adopted, and in the Maldives government declared this bay as a marine reserve. Maldives - a name that became synonymous with honeymooners' paradise in the tourism world, has slowly revamped to cater to the needs of families visiting.

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Budget travellers choose Maldives as their destination of choice thanks to the variety of affordable stays Read More. The third and crucial factor is the lunar tide, which pushes against the oceanic current. So much for the facts, now to understand what exactly is going on. If there is no counter-tide, the mixture of zooplankton is simply washed over the bay into the outside of the atoll.

Logically, at high tide, the plankton should simply be carried to the inside of the atoll, but instead it stays trapped in the bay! Plankton is swept up from the deepest sea and once at the surface, it shies away from daylight and instinctively dives back down.

The combination of oceanic and tidal currents encapsulates a huge amount of zooplankton. One brings it up and the other caps it on top, thus creating a thick soup, on which the filter-feeding giants come to feast. When all factors are right there are up to manta rays coming together from all over the Maldives for a magnificent feeding performance at the tiny Hanifaru Bay. Manta rays have very peculiar feeding tactics. They feed on the tiniest organisms by filtering tons of water and capturing tropical krill, shrimp, tiny fish, jellyfish and other plankton with their gill rakers.

When they hit nutrient-rich waters they perform a backward somersault to stay in the spot for more. This is also called a barrel roll — a strategy that maximises their food intake and saves them energy. When mantas feed together they form a chain and swim in a row with maws wide-open. The jaw-dropping phenomena that can be observed at Hanifaru Bay is called cyclone feeding.

It occurs when more than 50 mantas chain feed and the head of the chain catches the tail. This results is a manta whirlpool. As a massive concentration of plankton builds up in the bay more mantas join the party. This is when things start getting out of control. They seem to lose all sense of coordination, resulting in chaos feeding. Needless to say, the shrimp cocktail happy hour only lasts for a few short hours.

After that the mantas slowly retreat. Hanifaru bay is on the east side of the distant Baa Atoll. Depending on where you are staying, you can either take a sea plane directly to your resort or a domestic flight to the Dharavandhoo Airport DRV followed by a boat transfer.

The flight time is approximately 30 min. Being a marine park, access to the Hanifaru Bay is regulated and happens by means of taxi vessels.

These depart every hour from the Dharavandhoo island. This is the main local island in Baa Atoll, where the domestic airport is situated. It lays just 2 km away from Hanifaru. You will need to obtain a visitors token at the Hanifaru Visitor Center.