Snorkelling Baros Reef in the Maldives

Snorkelling Baros Reef in the Maldives offers encounters with turtles, sharks and octopuses just steps away from powdery white sand

The private island of Baros in the North Male atoll of the Maldives is one of our favourite places on Earth. We first visited in 2012 on a press trip with flights, accommodation and all excursions included.

We dined on a private sandbank, sailed with dolphins, quaffed champagne, lazed on a dhoni sailing boat on a sunset cruise and sampled a nine-course degustation menu. Unsurprisingly, it was an immensely special week. By the end, the island of Baros had stolen our hearts.

Fast forward 10 years to 2022 when, after successive lockdowns, we decided to splash out and recreate the trip. This time around, we had more free time as we weren’t there on a press trip where activities are packed into every day.

As such, between lounging on our water villa’s deck, swimming in the lagoon, sipping sunset cocktails and feasting on gourmet meals, we spent considerably more time snorkelling than during our previous visit.

Baros is famous for its house reef which is widely regarded as one of the best in the Maldives. As such, we snorkelled every day of our trip, working our way around the island, getting to know the reef’s nooks and crannies, its resident fish and its regular visitors. And with only 75 villas on the entire island, we rarely had any other swimmers or snorkellers nearby.

Baros began its own coral restoration project after reefs around the central atolls suffered from a series of severe events from 1997 to 2016, including two bleaching events, a tsunami and an outbreak of crown-of-thorns starfish – a predator that feeds on corals and is capable of wiping out entire coral colonies.

To restore the coral around the island, Baros uses ‘coral propagation’ methods where fragments of corals are transplanted to island-made ‘coral tables’. The tables look a bit like upturned baskets which encourage the polyps to grow. The result is a series of coral nurseries around Baros that act as homes for a variety of fish life and invertebrates. There is even a sunken fishing boat off the shore also acting as a coral nursery.

During our various forays, we saw a range of fish life including clown triggerfish, napoleonfish, unicornfish, oriental sweetlips, angelfish, surgeonfish, anemonefish, Moorish idols and batfish. We also saw…