Every diver carries a whistle

Every recreational diver must have these with them:

• Mask, snorkel, fins.
• A regulator incorporating a submersible pressure gauge, and an alternative air source. Both are named as part of the same requirement — the gauge is not treated as optional instrumentation, and the octopus is not treated as a nicety.
• A BCD jacket with both mouth inflation and a low-pressure inflator hose. Both, explicitly. An oral-inflate-only jacket does not meet the clause, and neither does one whose oral inflation has stopped working.
• Items for checking time and depth.
• Items that will give a signal in an emergency — and it names two: an inflatable buoy that rises to the surface, and a whistle.

A dive computer is only "very desirable". A whistle is not optional. That ordering surprises people, and it is the regulation's, not ours.

The computer sits in the same encouraging language we found in the tables-and-computers clause: highly desirable to use, never mandated. The signalling kit is written as a requirement.

Night dives add two items on top of everything above:

• an underwater torch, and items that will give a signal at night
• a marker buoy of the kind that lights up when light falls on it — so that the place above where the divers are is known

That second one is a specific piece of equipment, not a general instruction: a retro-reflective surface marker, whose job is to tell the boat where the group is from above. Read alongside the searchlight the vessel must carry on night trips, the pair is clearly designed to work together — a light on the boat and something on the surface for it to find.

The instructor who teaches and watches over the divers must additionally carry a knife, and items to make an emergency known if one arises.

It is a short clause and easy to skip, but it is the only place in the regulation that puts a specific piece of equipment on a specific person by role. Everything else on this page attaches to "divers" generally or to the centre.

The centre's list is not a list of objects. It is a list of things the centre must be able to say about the objects.

Everything used and issued to divers must be fully maintained. That is clause 1, and it covers the whole inventory rather than named items.

Cylinders must have been passed by parties the ministry has permitted to test them hydrostatically. Not simply in test — tested by a permitted party. That is the same requirement the March 2026 registration procedure builds on: the permission requirement is not new, and the procedure formalises who holds it.

BCDs and regulators need the manufacturer's designation that they are suitable for recreational diving, and both must be maintained according to the manufacturer's own rules. The BCD must have a low-pressure inflator.

A note on our wording. The Dhivehi literally says permission must be obtained from the company that manufactured the equipment. Read strictly that would mean a per-centre permission from the manufacturer, which is not how the industry works. We think it means the manufacturer's own designation of the item as suitable for recreational use — but that is our interpretation, not the text, and the text is what it is. If you need certainty here, ask.

Among the equipment generally rented out, two things must be available from the centre: the alternative air source, and the items for measuring depth and time.

That closes the loop with the diver's list. Part 7 says the diver must have those things in the water; Part 6 says the centre must be able to supply them. So a guest arriving without an octopus or a depth gauge is not a reason the dive proceeds without one.

The regulation sets no service interval of its own for BCDs or regulators — it defers to the manufacturer's schedule, which means the answer differs by brand and it is the centre's job to know which schedule applies to which item.

It does not say who may certify that equipment is "fully maintained", nor what evidence of maintenance must be kept. That sits oddly next to the dive roster, which the regulation specifies in detail and requires to be kept a year.

And it does not list the ministry-permitted hydrostatic testers. The March 2026 procedure sets up a register; whether that register is published, and where, we do not know.

Every section names its chapter, part and clause. One small source defect worth knowing if you are checking us: in the decode we work from, Part 7's second sub-clause is lettered (ހ) a second time rather than (ށ). The independent second decode letters it correctly, and we have used that.

One caution about who to ask. The responsible department has been renamed at least twice across these instruments — Ministry of Tourism in 2003, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture on the 2013 amendment, and ފަތުރުވެރިކަމާއި ތިމާވެށްޓާބެހޭ ވުޒާރާ, Ministry of Tourism and Environment, on the March 2026 procedure. For anything current, that last name is the one to go by.

A hydro date per cylinder, a manufacturer's schedule per regulator and per BCD, and a rental inventory that has to be able to complete any diver who turns up short. This is the part of the regulation that is really an asset register. Have a look if it is useful.