Komandoo lies in the channel between Hinnavaru and Dhumashi faru, well within the Hinnavaru Kandu. The currents run along the island and can sometimes be fairly strong.

The importance of conserving our coral reef is very important to us and therefore areas have been marked for our guests by means of flags on both the West and the East side. These are channels made for our guests to snorkel out to the housereef and return through these channels effortlessly. Please do not cross over the reef as it can be very shallow sometimes and you can hurt yourself and the corals.
This applies for snorkelers and divers alike.

To reach Areas A & B you can swim along the jetty through the lagoon and for Areas C & D you can walk down the jetty and enter the water by the wooden ladder at the end. Please watch the boat traffic on both sides.

Area A is the home of big schools of Humpback Snappers, Bengal Snapper and Bigeye Emperors. The Top reef is very shallow with 2-5 m. In the sandy area you can sometimes also see eagle rays feeding on small crustaceans in the sand.

Area B offers different types of Table Corals and soft corals.. The reef drops off to 25m into the channel, which has a sandy bottom with scattered Green cup corals.
The table corals are often home of juvenile Humbug Damsels and juvenile crabs.

Area C has a very long extension of the reef into the channel. Also here the top reef is in around 2-5 m and slowly slopes down to the channel bottom in around 25 m. Here as well you can find different species of hard corals and soft corals. Check out the lobsters and morays, which life underneath these big coral blocks. Also keep your eyes open for Hawksbill Turtles.

Area D stretches very far into the Atoll and also has a very shallow top reef. With low tide you can even see the coral heads peaking out of the water. Along this side you might encounter some bigger black tip reef sharks. The juvenile black tip reef sharks you can find generally in the lagoon where they are practising to hunt and feed on silversides. Very often they get the help of schools of jacks, which makes for a very interesting spectacle.

Commonly seen on all sides of the house reef are the Humpback Snappers, Bengal snappers,
Groupers; Wrasses are found in large quantities. The Tiger Cowries are probably the most commonly seen of the cowries on the reef. They are generally found in crevices or under coral. The cowries feed mainly on various types of sponges.
Of the fish that feed on Algae & Corals, some of the most common species that we can observe on our house reef are Parrott Fish, Surgeon Fish, Gobies, Damselfish and Coral Rabbit fish.
Of the fish that feed on plankton, shrimps and worms, we commonly see on our house reef Soldier fish, Pipefish, Bull eyes and Fusiliers.

During his study of the Komandoo housereef in November 1999, the German marine biologist, Mr. Dieter Grage counted 256 different fish species.