New Year Diving in the Mergui Archipelago: Mantas, Seahorses and Burma Banks Sharks
Could we have wished for a better way to end 2019 and welcome the New Year?
On the first day of the cruise around South Twin, we had the pleasure of diving three times with plenty of oceanic manta rays. What a way to finish the year!
On the second day, we spotted no fewer than eight different tiger-tail seahorses around Shark Cave, Square Rock and Submarine dive sites. The Mergui Archipelago certainly knows how to keep divers busy.
It was also time to say goodbye to 2019 and celebrate the arrival of 2020. We enjoyed a firework display and had a boat full of enthusiastic divers ready to party. What a great night we had! Dancing the night away in the middle of the Mergui Archipelago was certainly a New Year’s Eve to remember.
Starting the New Year with Sharks at the Burma Banks
We started the New Year with a new adventure and decided to navigate west towards the Burma Banks, a group of huge, flat sandy seamounts in the middle of the Andaman Sea.
These underwater formations are covered in hard corals, including some enormous coral structures that have been growing for centuries. With the seabed dropping to great depths around the banks, the area can also be an exciting place to encounter sharks.
This time, we were particularly excited to observe a silvertip reef shark swimming out in the blue, along with plenty of nurse sharks. Some were chilling on the bottom, others were hiding underneath rocks, while others cruised calmly across the reef.
With around 30 metres of visibility and crystal-clear blue water, we couldn’t have started the year with a better dive!
Ghost Net Cleanup at Seafan Forest
We finished this incredible journey around the south-western part of the Mergui Archipelago at Seafan Forest, one of our favourite dive sites.
The reef was absolutely gorgeous and full of life, with everything from stonefish to schools of barracuda, golden trevallies, yellowfin snappers and plenty more.
During the dive, however, we discovered a large ghost fishing net covering the eastern part of the reef. Ghost nets are more than just an eyesore. They can continue trapping and killing marine life long after they have been lost or abandoned, with animals becoming caught in the net for no benefit to anyone.
The four instructors onboard decided to make an extra dive between two scheduled dives to remove it. Seafan Forest is one of our favourite dive sites, so we simply couldn’t leave the net there.
It took our team of four around 20 minutes to remove the net, but we managed to clear it completely and, most importantly, set free a beautiful stonefish that had become trapped inside.
It was hard work, but the satisfaction of leaving the reef cleaner and seeing that stonefish swim free made it completely worthwhile.
Congratulations to Our New Nitrox Divers
Congratulations to David, Liz, Tav and Schezo for becoming Nitrox divers!
And a special thank you to Jeff for coming back year after year — at the time, it was already his eighth season with us!
This was a memorable way to end another fantastic adventure in the Mergui Archipelago, with manta rays, seahorses, sharks, incredible reefs and a little bit of conservation work along the way.
Happy New Year to all of you!
