There are many rumours floating on the state of the diving in Thailand. We received this update from our partners MERMAID in Thailand
- There was a coral bleaching that hit Malaysia and Thailand in May/June 2010. It did not go as far as Burma nor the Andaman Islands India.
- Shallow water hard corals down to about 15 metres on fringing reefs have been affected (fringing reefs are reefs around islands )
- It has not affected Soft Corals and has not significantly affected the granite boulder sites – which the Andaman Sea diving are famous for. eg Richelieu Rock has barely been touched at all and is as awesome as ever !
- The Thai Government has decided to close some reefs and we applaud their efforts to help protect the reef a. They have closed approximately 18 dive sites all along the coast of west Thailand (only 2 sites in Similans have been closed) – there are more than 30+ dive sites in the Similans. There are many good dives to replace this.
b. A number of shallow water bays around Surin Island have been closed – these were not on Mermaids itineararies
c. No sites of our Hin Daeng/Hin Muang trips have been closed - Our guests are coming back from their trips with big smiles and great reviews, having had an excellent trip with Mermaid Liveaboards our super service crews, yummy foods, fabulous boat and of course, great diving.
Summing up, the bad news is that the bleaching is significant, that dive sites have been closed by the government to protect the reefs. The good news is that the government is acting and that our preferred liveaboard operators have still plenty of exciting healthy dive sites to choose from.
We can confirm the excellent client feedback from recently returned clients.
