Similans update!

[scubadudee]

HI,

How about the R rock? Any chance to meet with the gentle giant?

Got an invitation to dive from Trang Jetty to Hin Deang, Koh Ha area. Want to compare the two to decide my coming Dec trip.

Any suggestions?

 

[orangelemon]

If people are going to dive sites that have been officially closed and operators are blatantly breaking the rules to give their divers a better experience then I for one will not be using those operators and will advise others to do the same. People should understand why divesites are closed and their availability rotated before breaking the rules, as its for our own benefit in the long run. We recently became a member of the Thai land Diving Association and incidents like this that have shortsighted people breaking the rules for their own gain is something we will be discussing in future

 

[Ringo]

Am intrigued to know which Liveaboard and Dive operators have received an official notice - and from whom exactly - informing them of which dive sites are entirely out of bounds this season?

Most of the Liveaboard operators have not heard or been informed by any officals.

For example according to some of the Liveaboard owners Christmas Point was 1 of the few dive sites that was relatively damaged by the Tsunami and since last year has recovered remarkably makng it a very pleasant dive. Also according to them this dive site is not closed.

Any official input?

 

[aquamann]

I was talking with Paul at Sunrise Divers in Karon and he had not heard anything about this.

 

[kapula]

Something interesting: at the South Point of Island #5 at 18 meter depth are 6 short pouch pygmy pipehorses. Hard to take pictures of but surely very cool critters!

You got me interested.. veerry interested Could you tell me in little more detail where you saw those little wonders? What is the dive site called etc. I'm looking to dive similan on early january. I've been there quite a few times already but never seen any pygmies. There are some dragontail seahorses in richeliou but that's a whole different story.

 

[smartecosse]

u mean tigertail right???

 

[Bowmouth]

You got me interested.. veerry interested Could you tell me in little more detail where you saw those little wonders? What is the dive site called etc. I'm looking to dive similan on early january. I've been there quite a few times already but never seen any pygmies. There are some dragontail seahorses in richeliou but that's a whole different story.

Drop in the water on the southermost tip of Island 5 and descent to 18 meters. There's a huge boulder with a bit of an overhang and the pipe horses are on the bottom just under the overhang on the deeper side.
Please do NOT swim UNDER the overhang because you may stir up the bottom sediment and damage the pipehorses environment. There were 7 of them 3 days ago!
Enjoy!

By the way; the seahorses at Richelieu Rock are tiger tail seahorses.

 

[Bowmouth]

Am intrigued to know which Liveaboard and Dive operators have received an official notice - and from whom exactly - informing them of which dive sites are entirely out of bounds this season?

Most of the Liveaboard operators have not heard or been informed by any officals.

For example according to some of the Liveaboard owners Christmas Point was 1 of the few dive sites that was relatively damaged by the Tsunami and since last year has recovered remarkably makng it a very pleasant dive. Also according to them this dive site is not closed.

Any official input?

It's the Park Rangers that will tell you that Christmas Point is CLOSED if you ask them. As far as I know there haven't been any updates send to local diveshops about the closed sites.
Again, imo the main problem is that the Rangers do not have much (if any) good communication with the diving community and nobody really knows what's going on.I asked about the closed sites last week at Island 4 and the Rangers said " Similan 1, 2 and 3 CLOSED for scuba diving and both Fantasea Reef and Christmas Point CLOSED for scuba diving as well".

Two days ago I removed part of a LONG-LINE at Shark Fin Reef. The long-line was already partly encrusted with some algae and small hydroids so it's been there for several months probably. If anyone dives Shark Fin Reef please help remove the last bits and pieces of this line.

 

[Bowmouth]

If people are going to dive sites that have been officially closed and operators are blatantly breaking the rules to give their divers a better experience then I for one will not be using those operators and will advise others to do the same. People should understand why divesites are closed and their availability rotated before breaking the rules, as its for our own benefit in the long run. We recently became a member of the Thai land Diving Association and incidents like this that have shortsighted people breaking the rules for their own gain is something we will be discussing in future

I think a major improvement would be if there could be better communication between the dive operators and the Marine National Parks. If the communication isn't all that great some dive operators will just assume they can dive whenever and where-ever they like.

 

[Bowmouth]

HI,

How about the R rock? Any chance to meet with the gentle giant?

Got an invitation to dive from Trang Jetty to Hin Deang, Koh Ha area. Want to compare the two to decide my coming Dec trip.

Any suggestions?

Don't count too much on seeing whalesharks. The diving at Richelieu Rock is FABULOUS but whalesharks are not on the regular marinelife encounters. There IS however a good chance you will see a large tawny nurse shark sleeping in the small cavern on the South Side of the Rock. This shark showed up last year and stayed for basically the whole season and just returned to its favorite resting spot last week.