Baa Atoll

The inside line / Curated calendar

The southwest monsoon drives an upwelling that pushes plankton into the dead-end of Hanifaru Bay on the incoming tide, and reef mantas gather to feed in a rotating column — up to two hundred at once, with whale sharks joining the larger events. Aggregations run from May to November and peak from late June through October, tightly linked to the days around the full and new moon. Nothing is guaranteed: the plankton has to concentrate, and a slack tide means an empty bay.