new member diving off andamans

[Tonester]

Hi Dhruba,

I dove the Anadaman Islands in 1999, and i actually met my wife there. In 1999, there only two dive opreators in Port Blair and another on another island. Of the two in Port Blair we dove with Samudra, the other (name i can't remember) was not an official PADI, or any other organisation, shop so i would stay away.

The diving around Port Blair was good, although the coral wasn't in great shape as the locals didn't really take care when fishing or on land. Walking around Port Blair many of the drainage systems were full of engine oil that would be left to just run off into the ocean.

Dive sites in North were awesome and some of the best diving i have done, particulalry if you can dive in the National Park, we saw what we thought was a beluga whale. Yes i know Beluga whales are supposed to be in cold water, but i've been through many books and it couldn't be anything else. We also saw a Grouper that was just massive.

Having said all of this, the Andamans were hammered by the Tsunami so who knows what it is like now. There was also talk of building a mud wall in the ocean to protect further Tsunamis, if that's the case you can forget diving around Port Blair.

Not sure if this helps, but i would like to hear what it is like when you get back - it's obviously a special place for me.

Good luck

Tonester.

 

[Bowmouth]

The reefs around the Andaman Islands are largely unexplored. Only very few people have been diving there and the majority of the divers have been stationed in Port Blair and dived from there as well.
Some Phuket (Thailand) based operators are sometimes running Liveaboard diving cruises to this area and this may be the best way to visit some of the reefs and islands well away from shore. Phuket based South East Asia Liveaboard (SEAL) and Aqua One used to do cruises to the Andaman Islands and may be able to help you with some more info about the sites and diving. Ocean Rover Liveaboard Cruises has 3 cruises scheduled for early 2007. Hope this will help a bit.

 

[MoonWrasse]

It's also on my want to dive list, someday.

I recall there was a grounding of a boat off the Andamans when I was in Phuket last November. So there may be boats that depart from Phuket to go there. I seem to recall when I checked into diving there there wasn't any local ops - LAB was it.
I think the tsunami also inflicted some serious devestation on the land.

For those of you still trying to find the Andamans: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andamans