Banana Reef

How did Banana Reef become one of the first dive sites in the Maldives?

The Maldives opened up to diving in the 1970s, and Banana Reef, within dhoni range of Malé and the airport, was one of the very first reefs explored and the first one set up for divers. Its name comes from its shape: seen from above, the reef, about 300 meters long and running north to south, curves west like a banana. Maldivians call it Gaathugiri or Aiydhashugiri. On September 27, 1995, the government declared it a marine protected area along with fourteen other dive sites, the country's first wave of protection. The official protected areas portal still lists it with that status, with no entry fee. Protection has kept what makes the reef valuable: very good coral cover, soft corals and sea fans on the walls, acropora tables on the plateau, and a mass of reef fish that is rare so close to the capital.

What is the dive like at Banana Reef, from the slope to the washing machine?

You drop onto the slope covered in acropora, and the current carries the drift northeast. Between 10 and 25 meters comes a run of caves, overhangs and caverns, lined with soft corals and sea fans, where bluestripe snappers mass by the hundreds with sweetlips, giant groupers, moray eels and spiny lobsters. The north face is the best part of the reef. At the northeast point, a row of huge detached boulders serves as a lookout for Napoleon wrasse and passing gray reef sharks; in the northwest, the reef juts out and forms a vast cavern. Then comes the east side and its resident school of bannerfish, in the area nicknamed the washing machine, because the current swirls around the overhangs there. You come back up onto the plateau for the safety stop, among the table corals and the hawksbill turtles.

How do you photograph and dive Banana Reef?

Banana Reef is a wide-angle site: sea fan overhangs with a diver in the opening, acropora tables just below the surface, clouds of yellow snappers against the blue and the bannerfish school in the current. Position yourself downcurrent, facing the school, and let the fish come to you; never brace yourself on the coral. The current sets the rules. When it comes from the east, the eddies around the overhangs can throw an inexperienced diver off balance, and the guide cuts the drift short. Everyone carries a surface marker buoy, sends it up before leaving the bottom and ends the dive as a group, since the boat picks up the groups in an area with heavy boat traffic. You never go below 30 meters, which is the law in the Maldives, and the reef is at its best between 10 and 25 meters anyway.