Fantastic
diving around the Similan and Surin Islands goes on !
The
Tsunami was a tragic ending of the last year, but therefore
we are happy to start the new year with good news.
After our guests and the whole crew returned safely home from
our dive safari from 22-26 December 2004, we found out that
also our home bases at koh Chang Island and Ranong were not
affected at all after the Tsunami Quake.
More important even, we would like to inform you that nobody
at Koh Chang Island or in Ranong Town got harmed.
To check out the dive conditions, we went from 03-06 January
2005 on a special 4-day staff excursion with crew only, and
accompanied by a marine biologist from America. We inspected
all dive sites around the Similan- and Surin Islands, including
Richelieu Rock, Koh Tachai and Koh Bon.
We found out that the reefs are fully intact and that only little
damage has occured on some of the very shallow reefs.
As the dive sites vary from 10-40 meters, we are very happy
to inform you that the fascinating diving around these areas
goes on.
At some places it seemed like there was more fish than usual,
probably because of the sudden massive nutritions that were
set free. Also we noticed that the average water temperature
has dropped from 29 to about 27 degrees, which is a positive
factor on coral growth. Corals grow between 22-31 degrees and
the drop of temperature could provide even a more stable condition
for reef developing.
During our dives we encountered rare nudi branches, a guitar
ray with baby, eagle rays, napoleon wrasses and the common marine
life like leppard sharks and teeming reef fish. At the same
time we heard about encounters of 2 manta rays and a whale shark
at Koh Bon Island.
On the 7th of January we departed again with guests, following
our regular schedule of dive safaris for this season.
