lukeROB
Contributor
I'm back home, but back at work. This is just going to be a few quick words and I'll try put together a bit of a report when I have some time.
Firstly the Good: diving around the Similans, Koh Bon, Koh Tachi and Richielue Rock was great. There was very little visible damage at most sites and visibility was 20m+ on most dives especially around the Similans. At many sites there was around 5-10% damage at a guess on the upper reefs. Parts of the site East of Eden had a little more but it was still a fantastic dive.
The only dive I would consider bad was Turtle Point (or Turtle Cove?) in the Surin Islands. This had major damage trees, branches and mud everywhere. Vis was poor and there was large amounts of destroyed and broken coral. However I still saw my first ever juvinile shaded batfish which was a highlight.
Now the Bad: First dive was Richielue Rock, vis Ok but not fantastic around 10-12m. On the descent my camera flooded (yes the trusty A70 has died a painful death). Yes all the preparation and waiting for the liveaboard and now no camera. So unfortunately there are no photos to share. I still had the video cam though and got some nice footage when I used it - but it wasn't the same. It felt weird not having the camera and I kept setting up shots that could never be. Oh well.
I still enjoyed the diving and it was good in a way as I had some really good fun not having to fiddle with anything and just relax and let everything around me happen. The fish life was great and the reef tops very pretty but I now realise how much I enjoy macro. I still spent most of the dives trying to find critters but definaltely found the reefs less rich than my last trip in Bali. There was however bigger fish, like dogtooth tuna cruising around but again this did not compare to the big fish diving I did in Cocos (Keeling).
All in all though it was a great place to dive and the topography of many sites was something I had never experienced so this was really cool. Some sites had significant current 1 - 2 knots, which is basically impossible to swim into and because the site is not a dift makes for some difficult dives. However I would say that most sites are very easy to dive and the Similan islands would be a great place for many but I would probably not dive there again purely because I believe I have seen better (I may also be bias because I didn't have the camera?).
Anyway enough rambling - just letting everyone know that Thailand is safe to return and the diving remains. However it is like a ghost town in parts of Phuket. I think people should return soon because the economy there must really be suffering.
I'll post some short video once I have edited some of it. This may be a long process as I have never done this before.
Firstly the Good: diving around the Similans, Koh Bon, Koh Tachi and Richielue Rock was great. There was very little visible damage at most sites and visibility was 20m+ on most dives especially around the Similans. At many sites there was around 5-10% damage at a guess on the upper reefs. Parts of the site East of Eden had a little more but it was still a fantastic dive.
The only dive I would consider bad was Turtle Point (or Turtle Cove?) in the Surin Islands. This had major damage trees, branches and mud everywhere. Vis was poor and there was large amounts of destroyed and broken coral. However I still saw my first ever juvinile shaded batfish which was a highlight.
Now the Bad: First dive was Richielue Rock, vis Ok but not fantastic around 10-12m. On the descent my camera flooded (yes the trusty A70 has died a painful death). Yes all the preparation and waiting for the liveaboard and now no camera. So unfortunately there are no photos to share. I still had the video cam though and got some nice footage when I used it - but it wasn't the same. It felt weird not having the camera and I kept setting up shots that could never be. Oh well.
I still enjoyed the diving and it was good in a way as I had some really good fun not having to fiddle with anything and just relax and let everything around me happen. The fish life was great and the reef tops very pretty but I now realise how much I enjoy macro. I still spent most of the dives trying to find critters but definaltely found the reefs less rich than my last trip in Bali. There was however bigger fish, like dogtooth tuna cruising around but again this did not compare to the big fish diving I did in Cocos (Keeling).
All in all though it was a great place to dive and the topography of many sites was something I had never experienced so this was really cool. Some sites had significant current 1 - 2 knots, which is basically impossible to swim into and because the site is not a dift makes for some difficult dives. However I would say that most sites are very easy to dive and the Similan islands would be a great place for many but I would probably not dive there again purely because I believe I have seen better (I may also be bias because I didn't have the camera?).
Anyway enough rambling - just letting everyone know that Thailand is safe to return and the diving remains. However it is like a ghost town in parts of Phuket. I think people should return soon because the economy there must really be suffering.
I'll post some short video once I have edited some of it. This may be a long process as I have never done this before.
.
