Lopi Pinnacle ()

[Buadhai]

I'd never heard of this dive site until diving there on Sunday. I'm not sure how anyone found it as it's in the middle of nowhere off the coast of Narathiwat. The top of the pinnacle is six to eight meters under water and there's no indication on the surface that anything is there. (Approximately 6º 40' 43" N, 101º 45' 38" E)

I enjoyed this place immensely. The marine life is in good shape. The pinnacle itself is covered with corals and many types of anemone. Lots of reef fish with some pelagic action.

Unfortunately, we did only one dive there. It's worth many more.

Anyone how or when this site was discovered and how frequently it is dived?

 

[Buadhai]

I shot the last two minutes or so of this video at Lopi Pinnacle.

[video=youtube_share;K27qVRUUEW4]http://youtu.be/K27qVRUUEW4[/video]

 

[Goodtime Adventures]

Never heard of it either, although having read your description and seen the video, I wouldn't mind diving it myself!

Was there a mooring buoy at the site or did the boat anchor using its GPS markers? I guess a few emails to local operators could give you further details about the frequency of divers/boats that visit. Nothing comes up on any dive site searches though. Perhaps some operators know if by a different name even?

In terms of how/when it was discovered, perhaps by exploration with a depth/topography monitor on a boat, or perhaps by word of mouth. I know a few sites here on on the gulf side that were happened upon accidentally by local fishermen (small scale, not commercial) & word spread from there. If the latter is not the case, I'd be tempted to keep those GPS markers a bit more secret. That video would not look nearly so appealing if the pinnacle became covered in fishing nets!

 

[Buadhai]

There's no mooring buoy at the site. The boat used GPS and then threw an anchored marker when they were able to actually see the pinnacle below the surface.

It may indeed be known by different names. The English spelling could be "lorpi". The Thai spelling that I used has the Thai word for "pile" or "heap" rather than "pinnacle". I think that's because the place looks like a pile of boulders, not so much like the pillar of a pinnacle.

Sadly, we came across many fishing nets at the site; an indication that it is probably known by Thai fishermen.

The coordinates in the OP are deliberately a bit off….

 

[JonnieB]

I shot the last two minutes or so of this video at Lopi Pinnacle.

[video=youtube_share;K27qVRUUEW4]http://youtu.be/K27qVRUUEW4[/video]

Great video! And I'm so sia jai of you seeing a whale shark I'm assuming at Ko Losin. I've chased those beasts all around the gulf and Andamen sides of Thailand and have yet to see one in over 200 dives! You go some really nice footage of him/her.

Also, some pretty aggressive remoras there...attached to the map puffer...funny.

who did you dive with...a club? Which operator did you use?

 

[Buadhai]

Thanks for the kind words. There are actually three different whale sharks in the video; two juveniles and one adult. All three were at Losin.

I started diving in Thailand in 1988. I saw my first whale shark in 2012. Patience….

This trip was on the MV Scubanet, a mostly-Thai boat. They do the Southern Gulf trips in conjunction with repositioning between the Gulf and Andaman.