Dive Site Spotlight - The Shipyard

The Shipyard is one of our favourite sites in Lhaviyani Atoll and it’s not just for wreck enthusiasts either - the amount of life on these unique wrecks is outstanding.

Both of the shipwrecks at this site were accidentally sunk. SkipJack 1 (Gaaffaru) which lies on its side between 20-30m used to serve as a refrigerated fishing vessel and caught on fire and sank on its way to be purposefully sank in deeper water. Posing dramatically on the sandy bottom, it is now encrusted in sea fans, hand and soft coral hosting macro life.

Whereas SkipJack 2, the star on this site, was a fishing boat that encountered problems on its route from Colombo to Maldives and sank just before it reached land.

ShipJack2 is adorned in coral and fish life, with boxfish, wrasse, butterflyfish, moorish idols, damselfish and more feeding off the algae. Thousands of glass fish can be seen inside the entrances and scorpion fish and leaf scorpion fish have made it their home. Batfish shelter here and stingrays and nurse sharks can be spotted resting underneath. A white tip reef shark frequents this spot, eagle rays can be seen passing overhead and napoleon wrasse often visit.

The Shipyard is also home to a resident green turtle that can usually be seen resting at around 14m, but on many occasions we have seen multiple green and hawksbill turtles coexisting here.

This site is ideal for underwater photographers and if you’re wreck certified you can even explore inside the two ships, swimming through swarms of glass fish, solider fish and squirrelfish and seeing the upside butterflyfish navigating side as well as morays and some unusual sea fans and corals growing in the deep interior.