Coral bleaching in Maldives Now?
 

We are considering a week on one of the atoll resorts in the Maldives in late Sept. Is the coral bleached NOW with 25% or more dead or dying? We are going quite far and at a sizeable cost and DO NOT WANT TO BE DISAPPOINTED.We are avid snorkelers and enjoyed the Malaysian Peninsula (Redang and Prehenstian Islands) last May and Belize last Jan.Please HELP.
Can you help based on visits in 2006??
Thanks

I certainly don't think you will be disapointed by the Maldives. The reefs are recovering post El Nino but there is still a lot of dead coral.This has not however, affected the big fish which are probably more prolific here than almost anywhere else that is easily accessable.(expect to see lots of sharks rays etc even when snorkleing I learnt to dive in Regang/Perhentian about 10 years ago and they are simply not in te same league. A word of warning - Septemeber is not the best time to visit weather wisebecause of the monsoons and you need to be careful as to which side of the atoll you are staying on.

We stayed at Lily Beach resort in November 2006. Probably the best snorkeling I have experienced and that includes the areas you mention and many others. However I'm not sure about going in Sept. We caught the end of monsoon season in Nov but it didn't spoil our trip. Just be aware.
One of the reasons for our Maldives visit was to try and reduce the pull that Phi Phi island has on us (we visit there at least once a year) but on that score, The Maldives failed. We were not disappointed, but it didn't match up to Phi Phi.

I find that snorkelling/diving is not as good on a cloudy day - the coral and fish colors just don't "pop". Everything looks greay to me. So, you may want to consider this as you decide what time of year to go.

We stayed at two different resorts--one in North Male atoll and the other (Filitheyo) in North Nilandhe Atoll. We found coral conditions to be much better in the latter. Looks like it's slowly recovering from El Nino and tsunami. Judging from similar views from other people we know who went there, the general consensus seems to be the further away from Mahe, the less bleaching/damage. Snorkeling was incredible--the best we experienced, the problem is, now it's much harder to find spots that matches maldives. Though we were there in March, not sure about September.

It looks like I should wait until March 2008 for we also want to snorkel in Borneo and the season without monsoons is March-July.
But any other recent snorkelers to the Maldives please chime in!!
Thanks.

Stankase-
Try posting your question on Tripadvisor. They have a very active Maldives forum. From what I've read the state of the reefs/coral really differs between resorts, so if you choose wisely, you should be fine.