Where can I dive with tiger sharks in the Maldives?
Tiger Zoo or Tiger Harbor is one of two dive spots in the world with a guarantee of year-round tiger shark sightings. The dives are conducted with a number of experienced and trained instructors, who brief the divers beforehand and provide them with a safety stick for protection from the sharks.
When to dive Fuvahmulah Tiger Harbor (Tiger Zoo)?
Tiger sharks are seen year-round at Tiger Harbour, but the best time to dive Fuvahmulah is in the dry season from January to April, when you’ll have the best water visibility of up to 60m/197f and when you’re more likely to also see Manta Rays and Whale Sharks too.
But if you dive between late September or early October through untill December, you may also see thresher sharks and schooling scalloped hammerhead sharks too.
Why are the tiger sharks at Tiger Zoo, Maldives?
The reason why there are tiger sharks at Tiger Zoo or Tiger Harbor in the Maldives is because after the harbour and local fish market were built in 2003, all the fish waste was dumped just outside the harbour entrance into the sea, which is what still attracts the scavenging tiger sharks.
The Maldives has the Largest Known Population of Tiger Sharks
The Maldives has the largest known population of tiger sharks in the ocean, which was discovered by German scientist and co-founder of Ocean Collective Lennart Vossgaetter. Since research began in 2021 Vossgaetter has identified 266 individual tiger sharks at Tiger Zoo, and 85% are female sharks.
During the Maldives tiger shark research Vossgaetter observed that the female sharks were getting fatter, until they disappeared for several months, only to return with slim bellies. It was later confirmed these female sharks were pregnant by enlisting the help of Oregon State University’s James Sulikowski, who used an ultrasound on the end of a probe to scan the sharks.
The above information is from The Guardian Newspaper and has the following quotes:
“Making it the largest known population of tiger sharks in the ocean.”
“The embryos measure 40 to 45cm,”; “Aaya carries about 40 of them.”; “Perhaps because they are safe here from aggressive males.”
Says Sulikowski, The Guardian – The embryos are of baby tiger sharks and Aaya is one of the pregnant tiger shark females, and “safe here” means safe in the Maldives, which in this case at Tiger Zoo Fuvahmulah Atoll.
Tiger Harbor dive site description
I thought it would be easier for you to read about diving Tiger Harbor Maldives in a list, as follows:
Dive type: Reef dive, shark dive moslty with tiger sharks.
Tiger Harbor (Tiger Zoo) dive site is located at the harbour entrance of Fuvahmulah.
The Tiger Harbor alternative name is Fuvahmulah Tiger Zoo, which is what it was originally named.
Tiger Harbor and Fuvahmulah are south of the equator in the Southern Hemmisphere (see map below).
Dive depths range from the top of the plateau at 6-9 metres (20-30 feet), which drops off steeply at around 15 metres (49 feet) into the depths of the Indian Ocean below.
Tiger sharks visit due to the continual dumping of fish waste from the local and sustainable tuna fishery. The local fish market was built in 2003, which is when the fish waste began to be thrown into Fuvahmulah harbor entrance.
As tiger sharks are known to be the scavengers of the oceans, it makes sense why they visit to scavenge on the fish remains.
You are very (very) likely to see a number of tigers sharks on most dives at Tiger Zoo, year-round, but you may also see other sharks too, such as silvertip sharks. The biggest count of tiger sharks on a single dive was 35 animals. On average most divers see around 10 individual tiger sharks.
Tiger Harbor dive site is the ultimate opportunity for underwater photographers to get closeup shots of tiger sharks.
This area of the Maldives is known as “Maldives Deep South Diving“, where Fuvahmulah Atoll is the second-most southerly Atoll before Addu Atoll, which is roughly 56km/35m south west of Fuvahmulah Atoll.
Fuvahmulah is known as the ‘Tiger Shark Capital of the World.’
Scientists and biologist have identified 266 individual Maldives tiger sharks at Tiger Zoo or Tiger Harbor, making it the largest known population of tiger sharks in the ocean.
Are the tiger sharks fed on Tiger Harbor dive?
Tiger sharks aren’t hand-fed during dives at Tiger Harbor, but a small amount of fish waste of mostly fish heads is dumped away from the divers to attract the sharks onto the plateau. Divers experience close encounters with tiger sharks, and the sharks often stay until the dive is over.
Why is it called Tiger Zoo, Maldives?
Tiger Zoo in the Maldives was first named because of the many tiger sharks that gather at the harbour entrance to Fuvahmulah. The name was changed to Tiger Harbor instead, and is a popular dive site with resort based dive companies and Maldives liveaboards too.
Is it safe to dive Tiger Harbor or Tiger Zoo?
Safety is a priority for Tiger Zoo dives, where each dive has several safety divers following strict rules who have Shark Speciality and Shark Expert certifications. All divers must follow the safety rules and procedures after a pre-dive breifing, and they are given a safety stick for protection.
Where is the best place to dive with tiger sharks?
The best places in the world to dive with tiger sharks are Tiger Harbor in the Maldives and Tiger Beach in the Bahamas. Whilst nature can never be a guarantee, if you want a high probability to see tiger sharks, both Tiger Harbor and Tiger Beach are the places to dive, which is almost guaranteed.
Maldives liveaboards that dive Tiger Harbor (Tiger Zoo)
This table of dive liveaboards that include Tiger Harbor dives in their itinerary are in customer review order, with the best reviewed liveaboard at the top of the list.
Total Records Found: 28, showing 7 per page
Customer Review
Discover Liveaboard
Customer Reviews
Price Per Day
”Superb boat, fantastic diving and lovely crew. One of us dives and one doesn’t but on Scubaspa we each had an equally great holiday. Think of a floating five star boutique hotel with an award winning spa and the best staff you could hope for. Add to it top quality diving that just kept giving with attentive and knowledgeable guides. Throw in some super travelling companions great food and lots of fun and you have a trip aboard the Scubaspa Yang. I must also thank Liveaboard.com for making sure everything worked smoothly and all requests were looked after. Recommended for: Crew and guides, Diving and Boat.
”Exceeded my expectations, great liveaboard! Was on the central maledives cruise starting December 4th 2023 and it was an absolute blast! The boat is in great condition and very spacious. Food was superb – Buffet for breakfast and lunch, set menu for dinner. The crew catered for all special diets like vegan food perfectly. The dives were phenomenal. Channel and thila dives with dozens of grey sharks, eagle ray, manta rays, whaleshark, turtles, octopus, so nothing else to wish for. You should consider that there are many dives at 30m with very strong currents, and with four instructors for 20-30 guests, you should be comfortable to dive alone with your buddy in challenging conditions. The guests and instructors were mostly French natives. But Lucila, one of the instructors, mostly took care of the six international guests. She did an amazing job to make sure that all info and briefings were provided in English and that we had a great time under water and on board. Thanks Lucila and the whole team for such a great experience! Recommended for: Sharks and Mantas, Variety in dive sites, engagement of instructors.
”Awesome adventure! Excellent. Should note however this is a predominantly Italian boat so be prepared if not an Italian speaker (although all guides speak English too). Food is all Italian – would be nice to have some local Maldivian food on occasion too. Other than this, trip was perfect, diving awesome. Great crew on board, Super welcoming and friendly, very well organised. I’d go back in a heartbeat!” Recommended for: Guides, food, friendliness.
”First liveaboard…definitely won’t be the last! Without a doubt, the diving experiences were the best ever! Night dives with manta rays and nurse sharks…. and so much underwater life in general! Our dive guides worked hard to get us to see as much as possible and the crew were always friendly and helpful. On board was great too. Relaxing in the tub or on the loungers between dives was a treat, as were the super comfy sofas! The food was excellent – such a great spread every meal time! Thoroughly enjoyed the week. Very sad that it’s now over!” Recommended for: Friendly crew and dive guides, food, chill out areas.
”Always beyond our best expectations. In our trip in Sachika boat, everything went perfect but the weather. Giacomo and the dive masters were the best: kind, helpful, and very professional. They take care of every small problem with a smile, making us feel at home from the first day The ship is in peak condition, so clean, and taken care off that it looks new. Much better than pictures, where usually is the contrary. Cabin was big and clean, with plenty space and an comfortable individual bathroom, also carefully cleaned. And food, food was amazing. Every meal was a buffet with plenty of choices, although since all were delicious, you usually end up eating much more than anticipated. Overall, when I come back to Maldives, I’ll definitely will be back with Giacomo and his crew. Thank you very much for the best diving week of our lives.” Recommended for: Divemasters, cabin, Food.
”Excellent boat and staff with fantastic diving – you can’t go wrong here. This is a very well run dive operation with a fantastic pair of dive managers, Gabriel and Maria. They both really look after you and the experience level of the guiding I received was second to none. (Gabriel is both full cave and tech certified and very experienced). Gabriel the DM and boat manager went way above and beyond to make sure we got in the water at the right time and location to see everything we wanted to. Highly recommend this boat and crew, it was the best liveaboard I’ve done yet.” Recommended for: The dive guide, the condition of the boat, the food.
”Fantastic Diving, Boat & Crew. Manta Rays on many dives, including a night dive Sharks, White Tip & Grey reef shark and Nurse Sharks Sting rays, Eagle Rays. Snorkelling with Whale Shark. Soleil 2 is a large, spacious and very well equipped boat Crew & Guides were very friendly, helpful & knowledgeable Food and service was superb.” Recommended for: Large spacious Cabin, Fantastic Diving, Good Guides.
The closest Maldives resorts for diving Tiger Zoo or Tiger Harbor
There are a few resorts and hotels on Fuvahmulah Atoll, which include Playa de Fuvahmulah cerca hotel, Ataraxis Grand, Spa and Vieni Qua Grand, Equator Retreat, Isle Royal Inn and Silver County. The nearest hotel to Scuba Butler Fuvahmulah and Fuvahmulah Dive School is the Isle Royal Inn.
This is a video taken and shared by Fuvahmulah Dive School of thresher sharks.
TIGER ZOO / Explore the best We are diving with the tiger sharks everyday all year round. Present movie is the result of everyday underwater adventure in 2017.
But remember you can also dive Tiger Zoo and Fuvahmulah Atoll from a Maldives dive liveaboard, which is also likely to take you to the amazing dive sites of Addu Atoll as well.
Tiger Harbor (Tiger Zoo) videos
Here are a few taster videos of what it’s like to dive Tiger Harbor:
Tiger Sharks at Fuvahmulah Island, Maldives – April 2022 At Fuvahmulah Island, there are tiger sharks that visit the harbor entrance, where fisherman have historically dumped the day’s waste. This turned into frequent sightings, and thus a dive opportunity. Tiger Zoo is the dive site run by local dive operators; it’s quite an experience to be that close the tiger sharks.
Tiger Shark Dive got too excited in Fuvahmulah, Maldives Experience tigers, and thresher sharks.
In the second video of Tiger Zoo, the tiger shark attacks the diver’s dive tank from behind.
Where is Tiger Harbor (Tiger Zoo) Fuvahmulah Maldives?
If you search on Google, you still need to search for “Tiger Zoo”, as Google has yet to be updated for the new name Tiger Harbor.
Please note that Google maps show “Tiger Zoo as permanently closed“, but this is not the case. Tiger Zoo only shows as permanently closed because the name has changed from Tiger Zoo to Tiger Harbor, which is still open for divers to dive with Tiger Sharks.
The following Google Map gives you the precise location of Tiger Zoo (Tiger Harbor).
Tiger harbour diving maldives reviews
The reviews for Tiger Habour (Tiger Zoo) include superlatives or expressions such as, “wow. I could do this dive over and over” and “Absolutely the main draw at diving FVM.” on Scubaboard, where FVM is an abbreviation of Fuvahmulah of course.
Fuvahmulah’s Tiger Harbor (Tiger Zoo) dive site is one of the few spots in the world where you will 100% see tigers sharks at close range. The other spot being Tiger Beach in the Barhamas.
Reviews from Liveaboard.com include:
“Great to see the tiger shark” Diving Fuvahmulah in February on the Carpe Diem
“Lots of Tiger Sharks – a very exciting experience!” Diving Fuvahmulah in February on the Carpe Novo
I hope you enjoyed this article about diving Tiger Harbor (Tiger Zoo) Maldives
I’d love to hear from you. Tell us about your adventures of diving and snorkeling, in the comments below. Please also share your photos. Either from your underwater cameras or videos from your waterproof Gopro’s!
If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkeling or scuba diving (or specifically about diving Tiger Harbor Maldives), please comment below with your questions.
There will also be many more articles about scuba diving (and snorkeling) for you to read and learn about these fabulous sports.
Liveaboard Diving In Maldives + Best Time To Dive… The Maldives is one of the top dive destinations in the World. If you're a scuba diver the best way to enjoy diving in the Maldives is from a liveaboard.…
Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been a scuba diver since diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1989. After his first dive he trained as a BSAC diver in the UK. He attained his Diver Leader certification with BSAC. He then went on to become a scuba diving instructor, teaching others how to dive and was voted as Diving Officer and Treasurer for the Saffron Walden BSAC club too. Russell has dived all over the world, including the UK, on liveaboards in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, South Africa and the USA. Russell is experienced in all dive types, including drift diving, deep dives that involved decompression stops and recreational dives too.
