Shark Point Reef

Resident blacktip reef sharks, in water shallow enough to snorkel.

Off the larger of the two islands there is a stretch of reef where blacktip reef sharks are reliably present — animals up to about a metre and a half, entirely uninterested in divers. They patrol the drop from the coral shelf onto sand. The trick is to settle on the sand at seven metres and stop moving; they close the distance themselves within a few minutes. Non-aggressive species, and one of very few places in the Indian Ocean where you can put a first-time diver on sharks at eight metres.