Thailand Scuba Diving Dive Site Directory

Description

This site is best described as a bare rock full of fish, although the south side does have corals! However, this is a great place for spotting nudibranchs, batfish, groupers, stingrays and morays making it well worth visiting.

Watching out for the Reef: Coral Conservation Guide for Divers

• Avoid touching live corals. You can kill them with your bare hands.
• Keep your gauge and octopus hoses close to yourself and prevent them damaging the reef.
• Secure your weight belt. Dropping of the weights can destroy the reef.
• Refrain from chasing or touching animals, especially manta rays and whale sharks.
•Maintain a comfortable distant and enjoy
watching them!

Many divers unintentionally destroy corals whilst diving. Here are a few guidelines on how to avoid doing so.

• Use the correct amount of weight to aid in your buoyancy.
• Control your fins; keep them away from the reefs and avoid kicking sand onto the corals.
• Do not pick up organic objects (dead or alive) from the sea. Likewise, please do not buy shells or other decorative products made from sea animals.
• Do not stand or rest on the stone-like corals. After all, they are living animals.

Dive with elephants

Phuket is not infrequently associated with the bizarre and the unusual but now, thanks to an idea commissioned by the Thai government, the province’s peculiarity has been elevated to new heights - the land of smiles is now the only place on the planet where you can dive with elephants.

On the northern edge of Siam Bay, Racha Yai Island (20km south of Phuket) is one of the latest dive sites in the area, The Siam Bay Marine Park. Created as a means to help to attract scuba divers back to Phuket following the tsunami of Dec 2004, these mammoth artificial reefs (which include two elephants 3m in height) are clearly showing signs of doing just that.

As you approach this bizarrely unique dive site you’ll swim through a temple gateway guarded by a mythical giant sentry, known in Thai as ‘Yak’, who is believed to defend the gate from evil spirits. Next, diving inwards and upwards, you’ll navigate through the colossal, elephantine legs. Not only is this very good luck in Thailand, but it's great practice for your buoyancy skills too. The water is generally clear here so some fairly unusual photo opportunities are possible. While you are there, have a look in the elephant’s ear, where a white-eyed moray eel has already taken up residence. Then swim through the ‘bamboo’ hut and check out the oyster.

With a mooring marking the site’s descent and an average depth of around 18 metres, this playground for the aquatically-inclined has become a popular site for those completing the last legs of their Open Water Diver courses.

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