A Week of Diving in the Mergui Archipelago
After a little Indian getaway, the MV Smiling Seahorse was ready for a new trip around the Mergui Archipelago.
This week we had a great mix of diving levels on board, from beginner Florent, who was working towards his Open Water and Advanced courses, to very experienced underwater photographers. It made for a fun group with plenty of different goals and, of course, plenty of reasons to get our cameras ready and get wet!
Clownfish and fusiliers in the Mergui Archipelago
Granite boulders and incredible diving at the Twin Islands
The granite boulder scenery around South Twin and North Twin amazed everybody. These sites gave us plenty to explore, with swim-throughs winding between the huge rocks and an impressive variety of marine life to keep everyone busy.
We enjoyed encounters with schools of batfish, big tunas, giant frogfish and ghost pipefish. There was something for every kind of diver, from wide-angle scenes around the granite formations to smaller subjects for the photographers to hunt for.
Boulder Beach at South Twin
Ornate ghost pipefish
Seahorses at Shark Cave and extraordinary visibility at Black Rock
After a stop around Shark Cave, where we found a real festival of seahorses, we headed towards Black Rock.
The visibility at Black Rock was extraordinary! After exploring the colourful underwater scenery around the Twin Islands and Shark Cave, the clear water at Black Rock gave everyone yet another reason to stay in the water as long as possible.
Western Rocky: barracudas, pipefish and more
We finished the trip at Western Rocky, where the final dives brought another collection of memorable encounters. We spotted bent stick pipefish, huge schools of barracudas and big-eye trevally, along with Jenkins’ stingrays, stonefish and seahorses.
It was a fitting way to finish our week of Myanmar diving, with the group still finding plenty to photograph right until the final dives. For the photographers, the variety of subjects meant there was always something else to look for, while the less experienced divers had an impressive introduction to the underwater world of the Mergui Archipelago.
Tiger-tail seahorse
A lovely collection of nudibranchs
This week we also had a lovely collection of nudibranchs! These tiny and colourful creatures were another highlight for the photographers on board, with plenty of different shapes, colours and patterns to discover during the dives.
A colourful nudibranch from the Mergui Archipelago
Another colourful nudibranch encounter
A pink nudibranch
A colourful nudibranch
Macro life in the Mergui Archipelago
A close-up nudibranch encounter
Hopefully everybody managed to get good shots of all these amazing creatures!
And just like that, it was time to head back to the mainland…
The photo room on the MV Smiling Seahorse
Congratulations to the group!
Congratulations to Florent for becoming a great diver, and to Luana, Michelle, Oliver, Mandy and Nadia for completing their Nitrox certifications!
Thanks for your company, everyone. We had a blast! See you next season!!
The Smiling Seahorse team
>> Find all the photos from this trip on our Facebook page <<
Discover more…
- Explore the Mergui Archipelago and its remote dive sites.
- Discover Myanmar diving with The Smiling Seahorse.
- Discover the best dive sites in Burma/Myanmar, including Black Rock.
- Learn more about Western Rocky, one of the memorable sites visited on this cruise.
- Discover the colourful world of Myanmar’s nudibranchs.
- Take a look at the MV Smiling Seahorse, our purpose-built liveaboard.
“The sea, once she has cast her spell, keeps you in her net of wonder forever”
J-Y Cousteau
