Annual Blackwater Expedition 2024: 7 Days of Blackwater Diving in Thailand
Greetings, fellow adventurers!
It was another exhilarating week aboard The Smiling Seahorse, filled with fascinating marine encounters during our Annual Blackwater Expedition, from 23 to 29 January 2024.
We welcomed divers from Germany, France, Thailand, Singapore and the UK, all sharing the same curiosity for the mysteries of the open ocean. With dedicated blackwater divers on board, plenty of photographic enthusiasm and six blackwater dives ahead of us, we knew we were in for something special.
Day 1: Welcome Aboard and Blackwater Photography
Our expedition began with a great group of divers, each bringing their own experience, curiosity and passion for underwater photography.
We were particularly happy to welcome back Alex Tyrrell, an experienced photographer and one of the pioneers of blackwater diving in Thailand. His knowledge and enthusiasm added a fantastic dimension to the expedition.
Throughout the trip, Alex shared his experience through daily presentations and photo reviews. It was great to see everyone’s photography improving during the week, and the guests thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to discuss their images and techniques.
Day 2: Similan National Park and Our First Blackwater Dive
Our second day started with a check dive at West of Eden in Similan National Park.
The enormous granite boulders were covered in vibrant hard corals, creating an ideal environment for macro photography. Nudibranchs, shrimps and tiny crabs kept the photographers busy, while a massive school of fusiliers surrounded us like an underwater fireworks display.
Moving into deeper water, we also encountered sharks lurking in the blue, adding a little excitement to the dive.
At Elephant Head, divers and photographers explored the spectacular granite formations, swimming around and underneath the huge boulders and through swim-throughs decorated with sea fans and hard corals.
Keen-eyed divers were rewarded with sightings of ribbon eels in different colour phases. We also encountered whitetip reef sharks, nurse sharks and a guitarfish that unfortunately managed to avoid the photographers’ lenses. Several massive Jenkins rays were resting on the sandy bottom at around 25 metres.
There were almost too many subjects to photograph! Thankfully, we were diving Nitrox, although sometimes even the extra bottom time never seems to be enough when there is so much to see.
We concluded the day with our first dedicated blackwater dive of the expedition. As darkness fell, we descended into the open ocean to search for the strange and fascinating creatures that migrate vertically through the water column each night.
Among the tiny animals drifting through the darkness, the male paper nautilus stole the spotlight.
Day 3: Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Another Blackwater Dive
Our exploration continued around Koh Bon, where massive marble rays and schools of chevron barracudas set the tone for another spectacular day underwater.
We then moved to Koh Tachai Pinnacle, where more barracudas, batfish and a playful clown triggerfish added colour and movement to the reef.
The day ended with another wonderful blackwater dive off the Similan Islands. Once again, the darkness revealed an extraordinary variety of pelagic life.
Days 4 and 5: Seven Dives at Richelieu Rock
For days four and five, our expedition took us to Richelieu Rock, Thailand’s most famous dive site, where we completed seven enchanting dives.
This isolated pinnacle is a dream for both wide-angle and macro photographers. In fact, Richelieu Rock creates one particularly difficult problem for photographers: deciding which lens to use for the next dive because there are simply too many interesting subjects!
Those diving with macro lenses had plenty to photograph, including harlequin ghost pipefish, tapestry shrimps, harlequin shrimps, hairy shrimp, zebra morays, tiger egg cowries and families of Clark’s anemonefish tending their eggs.
Wide-angle photographers could capture the vibrant coral reef, with schools of longnose emperors patrolling the pinnacle and changing colour as they hunted. Huge schools of bigeye trevallies and rainbow runners were also seen in the blue.
Even the safety stops were full of action, with batfish and giant trevallies gathering around the top of the rock. At one point, a blacktip reef shark was seen being chased by these powerful silver giants.
On the fourth night, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset at Richelieu Rock followed by a BBQ on board. It was a perfect way to end another memorable day of diving.
On day five, we had a later start before returning for two morning dives at Richelieu Rock. We then headed out for two more blackwater dives, where the open ocean once again delivered some extraordinary encounters.
Among the highlights were a pelagic seahorse and a sargassum frogfish. The latter is also a pelagic species, living offshore rather than on the reef. We also spotted a small fish hiding among a salp chain, a shrimp carrying a remarkable pile of faeces that helped it mimic a venomous siphonophore, and several other tiny pelagic creatures.
Days 6 and 7: Jellyfish, Barracudas and More Blackwater Encounters
For the final part of the expedition, we returned to Koh Tachai Pinnacle and Koh Bon.
The dives were almost surreal, with thousands of jellyfish surrounding us in the blue. Schools of barracudas were particularly spectacular, circling the divers and creating an unforgettable underwater scene.
A Very Special Blackwater Expedition
Across the week, we completed six blackwater dives, each one revealing a completely different side of the open ocean. From tiny larval creatures to fully developed pelagic animals, every descent into the darkness offered the possibility of discovering something completely unexpected.
We encountered numerous male paper nautiluses, beautiful little squids, pelagic seahorses and a charming sargassum frogfish hitching a ride on a floating Sargassum raft. There were also stunning cusk eels, sea robins and an incredible variety of tiny creatures drifting through the darkness.
On the final night, one of the highlights was a tiny larval crocodile toothfish (Champsodon sp.), another reminder of just how much remains hidden in the open ocean.
Blackwater diving has a unique way of revealing the mysteries of the ocean. Many of the creatures we encountered would normally remain almost completely invisible to divers, spending their lives far from the reef and rising towards the surface under cover of darkness.
For everyone on board, this expedition was a reminder of why blackwater diving is so addictive. Every dive is different, and every night brings the possibility of seeing something that has never appeared in front of your camera before.
Thank you to all our guests for sharing this very special expedition with us, and for bringing so much enthusiasm, curiosity and passion to every dive.
Happy diving! 🌊🐠📷
