Laamu Atoll

The atoll is served by two resort dive centres and one island operation: Deep Blue Divers, the PADI five-star centre at Six Senses Laamu on Olhuveli, the dive centre at Rahaa Resort, and Mundoo Dive and Excursions on Mundoo island. Rahaa runs its named sites as boat trips of roughly 25 to 40 minutes, and liveaboards working the southern atolls log the outer channels — Fushi Kandu, Isdhoo, Maabaidhoo Kandu — on stays of two to three days. Six Senses long marketed itself as the atoll's only dive resort; that claim is out of date.

Inside the lagoon the diving is on thilas: Deep Thila starts at 8–9 m and falls past 30 m onto a free-standing boulder grown with a large black coral tree, Boulder Spot scatters coral-covered boulders from 5 to 24 m, and Nursery Thila sits around 12 m with little to no current. The rim is cut by kandus where the pattern reverses — drop-offs at 16–20 m, moderate to strong current, and blue water along the wall at Muniyafushi Kandu. Grey reef and whitetip sharks hold in the channel at Maava Kandu, grey reef sharks and big barracuda schools run Gan Kandu, eagle rays ride the flow at Fushi Kandu, and turtles feed on the coral.

Laamu suits divers who want Maldivian channel diving away from the crowds, and parts of it are formally protected: the Fushi Kandu and Vadinolhu channels are named protected areas, and Six Senses manages a candidate conservation zone in the atoll's widest channel. Vadinoloo Kandu is for advanced or expert divers only and the channels are current-dependent, so newer divers will spend most of a week on the thilas. Anyone chasing the mass manta gatherings of Hanifaru Bay should go to Baa Atoll instead; here the sightings run year-round but are not guaranteed.