Ari & Rasdhoo Atolls · Maldives · Wreck · Pinnacle
Fesdu Wreck
Glassfish packed into the wheelhouse of a sunken trawler
Photo: fairlybuoyant · CC BY-SA 2.0
The Fesdu Wreck is a 30 m coastal fishing trawler sunk as an artificial reef in north-central Ari Atoll, lying on sand with a thila close by. Regularly washed by currents and covered in coral, it draws dense fish life, and a single dive takes in both the wreck and the pinnacle.
Also known as Fesdhoo Wreck & Thila, Fesdhu Wreck.
Where it is and how deep
3.9995° N, 72.7852° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The trawler sits on a sandy bottom with its bow pointing north at 30 m, slightly deeper than the stern at 27 m. Most dives make a full circle of the hull and then explore its shallowest sections. Dense clouds of glassfish fill the wheelhouse, with anthias, butterflyfish and slow-moving lionfish around the structure.
Larger residents live on the wreck too: moray eels, red-mouthed groupers and blue-fin trevally. After the wreck the dive moves west over the sand to the nearby thila, which takes up the rest of the dive.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Fesdu Wreck
- Type
- Coastal fishing trawler
- Length
- 30 m (98 ft)
- Cause
- Sunk to form an artificial reef
- Lies
- On a sandy bottom, bow pointing north at 30 m and stern at 27 m
Marine life and season
- Reef fish swarms
- Groupers
- Trevally & jacks
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Prime |
Season follows Ari & Rasdhoo Atolls: The seas are calmest from December to May, but manta numbers peak from August to November.
Dive videos
⚓ ¡UN PECIO DE 30 METROS LLENO DE VIDA! 🐠🇲🇻 | Fesdu Wreck | Maldivas | 04-09-2016 🤿 · Producciones Maldisub on YouTube
Sources
- Ari Atoll diving — Dive The World
- Fesdhoo Wreck & Thila — ScubaGo
- Fesdu Wreck dive site in the Maldives Central Atolls — Diveplanit
- Diving in Fesdhu Wreck Maldives — Divebooker
- Maldives Complete dive-site profile — Maldives Complete
Photo credits
- A coral-covered shipwreck in blue water, with a bushy black coral and fish swimming above its broken superstructure by fairlybuoyant, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Openverse
More dive sites in Ari & Rasdhoo Atolls
Pinnacle
Ocean-facing pinnacle at the mouth of Bathala channel
Mantas at a cleaning station from December till April
Reef
A canyon cut diagonally through the middle of a channel reef
Pinnacle
South-side overhangs with gorgonian fans and black corals
Pinnacle
An estimated sixteen resident grey reef sharks
Pinnacle
A pinnacle eroded into five separate pieces, 12 m to 40 m
Grey reef sharks hunting in the blue around a tiny volcano-shaped top
Wreck
Upright cargo wreck, deck at 21 m and sand at 28 m
Similar dives elsewhere
An 1871 steamship sitting upright with a bow like a Viking ship
An artificial-reef wreck beside a hard-coral giri
Two coral-covered wrecks, SkipJack1 and SkipJack2, in a channel with sharks
The largest wreck in the Maldives, on her port side at 33 m