Often considered among the most impressive locations for fish life and photography, not only at South Male Atoll but in the entire Maldives. Guraidhoo Kandu is one that is topographically complex, consisting chiefly on 2 channels and a central reef. It also covers a large area and is really a spot that can be dived several times in different ways and is sometimes subdivided into several individual sites.

The southern channel (often considered a dive site in its own right) is a stretch that runs for around 300 meters and is flanked on each side by vertical walls, past which you will drift effortlessly in the prevailing current. Where the southern channels meet the abyssal drop at around 35 meters, there is often a lot of action such as jacks, Napoleon wrasse and grey reef sharks.

The reef wall provides plenty of current-free indentations where you can take 5 and check out the resident marine creatures, including honeycomb moray eels and long-jawed squirrel fish. There are an impressive number of soft corals, sea fans, black coral bushes and other sessile colour, particularly inside the channel where at 30 meters there is an archway covered on soft corals – a real Kodak moment in the right light.