Category: Phuket dive sites

Koh Doc Mai Phuket dive site Koh Doc Mai is a divemaster favourite. It's a small karst limestone island about 45 minutes from Phuket on the route to Phi Phi and Shark Point. It's normally dived as the last dive on a 3 dive day trip. Koh Doc Mai is mostly a wall dive although there is a shallow ledge on the western side. It's good for drift diving and deep dive courses can also be taught here although you'll have to swim out away from the island a bit because the depth at the sand is about 25 metres. Koh Doc Mai also has a cavern and a couple of small caves. The cavern on the east side is at about 18 metres with a large opening. You can explore it safely but recreational divers should stay out of the caves. The undersea walls of Koh Doc Mai are alive with colour, a mix of hard and soft corals, sponges, zigzag clams, sea whips and sea fans. Dive slowly and look closely to find all sorts of critters. Seahorses are fairly common. You can also see pipefish, leaf fish and frog fish. Moray eels are everywhere, so are lionfish and scorpionfish. Sweep aside glass fish to see whole families of white eyed morays free swimming up the wall crevices. You will also see a lot of shrimps like boxer shrimps and hingebeak shrimps. If you're a nudibranch nut you'll love Koh Doc Mai, put the macro lens on your camera. Are there sharks at Koh Doc Mai? Although not really known as a shark dive site there are three types of shark that you can be seen at Koh Doc Mai. Small Bamboo sharks hide under rocks on the seabed, take some time to look under the rocks near the cavern

Anemone Reef Phuket dive site Anemone Reef is a lesser dived Phuket dive site. It's located half way between Phuket and the Phi Phi Islands and is just a few hundred metres away from Shark Point and the King Cruiser Wreck. (The King Cruiser sank after hitting Anemone Reef). Shark Point is bigger than Anemone reef and easier to dive in strong currents, which is why dive boats tend to favour it. But in the right conditions Anemone reef is equally, if not more beautiful than Shark Point. Local Phuket dive guides love the chance to dive Anemone reef for a change. Anemone Reef is a submerged pinnacle so your dive starts just below the surface then descends down to about 25 metres. From depth you slowly circumnavigate the pinnacle in an upwards spiral, ending with a safety stop at the summit. Actually if you wanted to you could do the whole dive at safety stop depth. The shallow part of the reef is so pretty and so full of life. Photographers stay shallow because that's where the best light is. What will you see at Anemone reef? As you would expect the rock is covered in colourful anemones that are in constant movement, swaying in the current and surge. The anemones are home to various different anemone fish species. The whole rock is matted with schools of fish like fusiliers, snapper and glass fish. These schools move in unison as if they are one giant organism. You can find moray eels all over the reef including giant moray, white eyed moray and the less common Zebra moray. Other notables are banded sea snakes, lionfish and scorpionfish. In the deeper sand patches you should also look for Kuhl's stingrays and patches of garden eels. In rock crevices hunt for ornate ghost pipefish and seahorse. Also keep an eye out for