DIVELOG JUNE 406

Ornate Crays, Panilurus ornatus , colony must be protected to be allowed to breed.

Some dives were predominantly mauve others were hot pink coral gardens and other dives were huge boulder dives with colonies of colourful corals dotted over them. One of my favourite dives was way down south near the Malaysian border. On this dive, we never made it past fifteen metres, many of the dives were in 5 to 9 metres. This is a beautiful coral garden filled with tropical fish, especially juveniles. It is a nursery area with an incredible variety of fish, lots of coral caves, small walls and magical rock formations. Here you can find many of the best tropical fish that you could wish for, from butterflyfish, to wrasse to damselfish. HIN DEANG & HIN MUANG This area has lots of pinnacle diving. Strong currents wash over the rocky reefs bringing abundant food for all of the sessile lifeforms. The colour formations include gardens of purple soft coral and some with mainly red colours. On my trip, I saw so many Giant Moray eels that I felt that they could be one of the dominant predators. Schools of rainbow runners, trevally, barracudas and snappers prey on the swarms of bait fish. Plenty of fan corals adorn the reefs. The diving on these pinnacles is always exciting. Usually the water quality is good due to the fact that most are away from the coast.

KOH DOC MAI The limestone pinnacles are remnants of coral reefs that once ran from well south of Thailand all the way to China. I read that these reefs were many times larger than the Great Barrier Reef a few million years ago. These pinnacles are safe havens to many wonderful

One of the most beautiful Angelfish of all, the Blue Lined Angelfish

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DIVE LOG Australasia #406 - June ‘24