Fuvahmulah to charge $20-200 for diving

Fuvahmulah city council has decided to charge a fee from the popular Tiger Shark Point off the coast of the island and other areas of the sea that are part of the atoll's jurisdiction.

Under new regulations gazetted by the council on Monday, payment of the fee grants 15 days for diving. 

Locals, work permit and student visa holders: 

Foreigners:

Though the regulations will come into effect from the day it is published in the gazette, fees will be levied on divers from September.

Some safari operators have expressed concern over the imposition of fees on diving in the waters of Fuvahmulah.

Safari vessels ferrying tourists now follow two methods to dive at points located in the island's jurisdiction. One way is to anchor the vessel outside Fuvahmulah and dive independently. The other option is to pay a Fuvahmulah dive school for diving. 

"Once the Fuvahmulah council starts charging this kind of fee, they will start charging the same from other islands as well. On the other hand, the fees levied are huge sums," Ahmed Zubair Adam, who operates a safari at Blue Horizon, told Atoll Times.

"It is a matter of concern that the taxes have also been hiked and we have to pay additional charges."

Zubair said legal remedies should be provided to resolve issues like councils charging exorbitant fees to access diving and surfing points.

"Earlier, resorts didn't allow us to access dive and surf points in their jurisdiction. The resorts said at the time that only their in-house guests could access those points. The tourism ministry changed it and took these points from resorts and declared them as public areas," he said.

"I think legally [all] dive points and surf points should be separated and declared as public spaces."

National Boating Association of Maldives (NBAM) President Ismail Hameed said this is the first time that Maldivians are being charged a fee "to swim". 

Ismail said it was not a good decision to make at a time when tourism in the south was in dire straits.

He added that such an additional fee would have an adverse impact at a time when they were trying to increase the number of tourists visiting the southern atolls.

Ismail said setting a quota for the number of people who can access the site per day or closing the site for a certain period were better ways to tackle the concerns of overcrowding at diving and surf points

Last year, the Fuvahmulah council decided to charge USD 500 a day from safari vessels entering the island's harbour.

Prior to that, safaris were charged a fee of USD 50. The council decided to reduce the amount to USD 150-200 after criticism of its decision to raise it to USD 500, but later overturned the decision and set the fee at USD 500.