Diving The Andaman Sea

22nd May 2008

Thailand's shores are bathed by two oceans; the warm waters of the Andaman Sea lap against the white sandy beaches along the western coastline of the Thai-Malay peninsula, and the Gulf of Thailand to the south and east contributes to the more than 1,700 miles of coastline. Our adventure begins in the southern resort area of Phuket where we board the Ocean Rover live-aboard for 10 days of diving in the Andaman Sea.
Diving in this region gives new meaning to the term diversity. Over the 10-day trip we swam over thickly covered sloping coral reefs, bobbed along sheer vertical walls covered with cup corals and nudibranchs and bisected with caves and swim-throughs; explored the cracks between giant boulders, rode the current over a rubble sea floor teeming with marine life, and swam around entire rocky islets covered with soft corals. Fish and invertebrate life range from tiny gobies, shrimp, nudibranchs, and crabs to giants like mantas and whale sharks, with everything in between. We were even visited by several minke whales during a surface interval one day. That's one of the great joys of diving the world's oceans; you just never know what you'll see.

The best time to dive here is during the dry season from November - March. In late January, we had sunny, 90 degree days with a warm breeze, and a few days that were calm and down right hot. Water temp is a very comfortable 82+ degrees, and with my old 3mm wetsuit, I was only chilled once. Most of the diving is done from two dinghies as the Ocean Rover moors away from the dive sites to avoid anchor damage. A few mooring buoys are available at the sites nearest the mainland. We only dove off the back of the boat on two occasions. Currents are the norm here, hence the wonderful abundance of marine life and coral reef growth. A few times they were troublesome, especially for us photographers trying to capture the moving scenery. This is not a trip for beginners. Divers here need to be very comfortable at all depths in all types of current and visibility conditions. The only disappointing thing about this trip (other than we didn't see any whale sharks) was the limited visibility at most of the dive sites, averaging 40 feet. Wide angle lenses were pretty much shelved after the first two days. Our manta sighting occurred in such murky water we each saw him at different times and no one was close enough to get a photo.
Our trip took us to the Similan Islands, Richelieu Rock, Surin Islands, across the Myanmar (Burma) border to the Mergui Archipelago and back again. What a trip it was--Here's some of my favorite dive sites and a look at the critters we saw:

East of Eden, Similan Islands ------ 10-120 feet
One of the most scenic sites we visited, and with some of the best visibility, this area offers a sloping sandy shoreline that evolves into huge bommies covered with gorgonians, soft corals, and clouds of anthias and sweepers. The descending slope reveals huge sea fans, feather star crinoids by the dozens, schools of bigeyes and snapper, along with huge anemones home to several species of clownfish.

Elephant's Head, Similan Islands ------ 15-120 feet
The underwater topography here is huge granite boulders the size of tall buildings that loom up from the depths and reach above the surface in some places. Forming a complex series of easily navigated archways and tunnels, these rocks are covered with soft corals, sea fans, hard corals and harbor a myriad of fish life. Nudibranchs, jawfish, mantis shrimp, hermit crabs, just to name a few. We spent our entire dive with a veined octopus and a very sociable hawksbill turtle. Whitetip reef sharks are frequently encountered here.

The Hideaway, Similan Islands ------ 15-100 feet
Hard corals abound here with fields of cabbage or lettuce corals full of colorful schooling fish, white collar butterflyfish, blue-spotted coral groupers, oriental sweetlips, bannerfish, angelfish, snappers, jacks or trevallies, sweepers, and the ever present anthias in bright orange, purple and blue-green. We spotted a few large anemones with Clark's anemonefish, several spotfin lionfish, and a very territorial Titan triggerfish.

Richelieu Rock, Surin Islands ------ 10-120 feet
This was probably our favorite place, we could have spent a week here and probably not been tired of what we were seeing or photographing-it's really that good. A small limestone outcropping, this site consists of one large pinnacle and several smaller ones that all rise steeply from the sandy bottom. The rock barely breaks the surface at low tide, hence it's widely known as a navigational hazard. The abundance and variety of marine life here was amazing. Dense colonies of anemones are home to Skunk, Clark's, False, Red Saddleback, and other anemonefish and porcelain crabs, and anemone shrimp. Soft corals and gorgonians hang off the steep walls harboring two yellow Tigertail seahorses and two Harlequin ghost pipefish.
Wow, what a dive. Lionfish hover over sea urchins that are eating sea stars. Every crack and crevice is full of peering eyes, moray eels, scorpionfish are everywhere so be careful where you put your fingers, and we saw a large school of barracuda and several cuttlefish. Like I said, why would you want to leave?
But leave we did

We left Thai waters and moved northward into Myanmar (Burmese) territory and the 14,000 sq. miles and 800 islands that comprise the Mergui Archipelago. Only since 1997 have divers been exploring these waters, so many areas are yet to be found, but they've found some winners so far. The islands are similar to their Thai cousins with rugged, high-profile limestone and granite topography. Dense brush and rainforest cover most islands along with vast white sand beaches and mangroves leading to tidal creeks and a few freshwater rivers. The vast majority of these islands are uninhabited.
Western Rocky, Mergui Archipelago, Myanmar ------ 10-130 feet
A small limestone island with several adjacent rocky outcroppings, this site would take days to cover completely. We only made it part way around the main island on two different dives since there was so much to see. How about three mating cuttlefish, anemone crabs, lionfish, two nudibranchs cuddling or mating, crabs, puffer fish, many species of moray eels, scorpionfish, urchins, clownfish, hawkfish, blennies and gobies, and the list goes on. These islets are honeycombed with crevices that provide superb cover for marine life. A large tunnel runs completely through the island and some of our shipmates swam through and surprised a sleeping nurse shark. There are several small caverns and a huge archway. Sharks are known to patrol this area, as well as schooling jacks, fusiliers, and more.

Three Islets, Mergui Archipelago, Myanmar ------ 10-90 feet
This scenic area is one small island and two large rocks that rise well above the surface. Each is a separate dive site, and it would take many dives to cover all this area has to offer as well. The variety of marine life here is sensational. The main island has a sloping, rocky side and a sheerer wall side. We only made it part way around this one too, just too much great stuff to see and the current was running, so we hid out as best we could. The rocks and crevices were alive with hinge-beak shrimp. These cute red and white critters were thick as fleas everywhere we looked, as were moray eels and scorpionfish. The highlight of this site was probably the two Harlequin shrimp on a gorgonian, one eating part of a starfish arm! We also saw mantis shrimp, Shultz's pipefish, a white frogfish, cleaner shrimp, and jewel box urchins, four or five species of moray eels, hawkfish, blennies, banded snake eel, crinoids, and orange cup corals. There is a large canyon at the north end of the main island that is usually home to several gray reef sharks.

This isn't much of a wreck site for superstructure, just an old dredge barge that has been down for many years and has attracted quite a wide variety of marine life. Lionfish float around the hull everywhere, schools of jacks, porcupinefish, yes schools of porcupinefish, snappers, sweepers, Moorish idols, many different moray eels, many nudibranchs, and several Leopard sharks. You can cover the wreck site once or twice during a typical dive, and the surrounding sandy bottom harbors some interesting creatures as well.

That's just a taste of Andaman Sea diving, enough to whet your appetite to put this destination and this live-aboard on your to-do list. We have never had such good service on a dive boat anywhere in the world in over 16 years of diving.

Linda Gettman

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