Where the mantas are, and when.
Manta timing is monsoon-driven and it differs from atoll to atoll — two atolls can be on opposite seasons. Ranked by atoll because that is the level the science reaches: anyone offering you per-resort manta odds has estimated them.
9 atolls have published science we can cite for this. The others are not missing — nobody has studied them.
Baa Atoll
A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and the one atoll where the timing is measured rather than remembered — Hanifaru Bay has been surveyed for over a decade and tracked with acoustic tags.
Overwhelmingly a southwest-monsoon animal here, on the atoll’s eastern flank. Over 95% of acoustic detections at eastern Baa fell in the southwest monsoon, with near-zero activity in the northeast. Across more than a thousand survey days at Hanifaru, feeding was recorded on roughly 62% of them. Hanifaru alone accounted for 64% of detections in its site cluster.
Within the season, the timing is tidal rather than merely monthly. Mass feeding is driven by zooplankton concentrated by a back-eddy that Hanifaru’s particular reef shape creates, so spring tides around the full and new moon are the windows that matter. The largest “cyclone” feeding events happen only a handful of times a season.
North Ari
The most densely documented manta atoll in the country — five separate sites assessed, and they do not all run to the same calendar.
At Genburugau, feeding runs roughly May to December and was recorded on around 92% of surveys, with peaks in June and December. Maayafushi sees mantas year-round with a southwest-monsoon peak.
On the atoll’s western and northern edges the season inverts, exactly as the current rule predicts. Gangehi feeds in the northeast monsoon and acts as a nursery, holding about a fifth of Ari’s young-of-year. Veligandu Kandu, off eastern Rasdhoo, runs November to April.
Raa Atoll
Two documented manta areas on opposite flanks, running on opposite seasons — the clearest illustration in the country of how the monsoon splits a single atoll.
Around Maamunagau and Fenfushi, feeding runs December to April, in the northeast monsoon, with young-of-year present in the same window. The record here is substantial: several thousand sightings of more than 400 identified individuals.
Vandhoo and Kottefaru flip to the southwest monsoon: feeding around September to November, courtship from July. This eastern side holds roughly 72% of the atoll’s pregnant-female sightings.
North Malé
Two documented manta areas on opposite sides of the atoll, doing different jobs.
Bodu Hithi Kandu, on the west, is a northeast-monsoon feeding site: nearly half of several hundred recorded sightings were animals actively feeding, with courtship logged nearby.
Lankan Beyru, on the east, is assessed as a reproductive area: hundreds of courtship sightings within a very large record. Its season is not stated in the assessment, so we do not assert one.
South Ari
Home to one of the very few whale shark aggregations on earth that never switches off — and the reason is more interesting than a season.
A northeast-monsoon animal on this side of the atoll — the mirror image of Baa. Rangali Madivaru, on the western flank, sees mantas from about December to April, with courtship and pregnant females concentrated between January and April.
Gnaviyani
A single oceanic island with no lagoon and deep water at its edge — which makes it unlike anywhere else in the Maldives, and the only place in the country with a resident tiger shark population.
Peaks March to May. Fuvahmulah accounts for roughly 86% of all oceanic manta sightings recorded in the Maldives — a different animal from the reef mantas of Baa and Ari, and far harder to find anywhere else in the country.
Lhaviyani
Manta cleaning on the northeast monsoon, and the largest documented grey reef shark aggregation in the Maldives.
Feeding peaks with the northeast monsoon — at Fushifaru Kandu around its start, and near Kuredhu, Huravalhi and Komandoo roughly January to March.
Addu
The far south, and unusual: Addu’s mantas appear to stay. The deep channels either side may simply be too costly to cross.
A resident sub-population rather than a seasonal visit. Across some 335 surveys at Maa Kandu, about 86% of individuals were resighted — an average of eleven times each. It is assessed as a reproductive area. No month-by-month peak has been published, so we do not state one.
Malé Atoll
The country’s busiest atoll. Its documented wildlife sits in the North and South Malé assessments — manta areas on both flanks of North Malé, channel sharks in the south.
Bodu Hithi Kandu on the western side is a northeast-monsoon feeding area; Lankan Beyru on the east is assessed as a reproductive area, with no published season.