Blog Archives

Trip report North Andaman from 20th to 25th February 2023

27/2/2023

Full boat cruising in the North Andaman sea from Tap Lamu to Ranong with a full boat from French, America, Canada, Germany and Australia.

Congratulations to Britanny for your Advanced Open Water certification and to Olivier, Emmanuel, Luc and Carole for your Enriched Air Nitrox certifications.

Diving in the Similan National Park for the first days, starting with Shark Fin Reef, West of Eden and Elephant Head Rock to finish the day with a night dive in Turtle Head Rock. Many crustaceans, beautiful fish, some nudibranch, ribbon eel, and the reef full of fish...

Apart from their gorgeous colouring and their many shapes and sizes, nudibranchs have some special tricks up their sleeves that really sets them apart.
Although they are small, they have developed some very industrious techniques to protect themselves. Many nudibranchs display bright colours for a multitude of reasons. Some practice what’s called aposematism which is colouration to suggest to predators that they aren’t tasty or can be toxic. This is a technique used by the Phylidiidae family that we often see in the Indo-Pacific.

Cruising north to explore the north side of the island number 9 with its beautiful Three Trees, North Point and Christmas Point. 4 white tip reef sharks, turtle, lots of bluespotted stingray, school of barracuda and some garden eel...

Do you know garden eels? They are strange tropical fishes with snake shaped bodies and puffy faces with big eyes making them, overall … super cute.
They live in large colonies oscillating like whip coral in the currents and disappear like a mirage when you approach.
Take a look at this garden eel FAQ...

Next day around the two islands of Bon and Tachai was incredible. 6 octopus matings, turtles swimming around the pinnacle. A pregnant lobster was still carrying its eggs. Huge groupers hiding between the rocks and lot of action during the sunset dive on Tachai Pinnacle.

To finish this trip we were lucky to dive on the famous Richelieu Rock. Pregnant ghost pipefish, seahorse, peacock mantis shrimp, an amazing amount of glassfish. The huge school of trevallies, emperors, rainbow runner were hunting around the rock.
Thank you for choosing us and looking forward to diving again together.

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Trip report North Andaman 14th to 18th February 2023

27/2/2023

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Full boat, 16 guests coming from Russia, England, America, Canada, Slovenia, Switzerland and Australia embarking to dive 14 times over 4 days.
We start with the beautiful dive sites of the Surin National Park and see juvenile shaded batfish, big Jenkins whipray, huge napoleon wrasses, cute tecacera, called Pikachu nudibranch !

Nudibranche Pikachu

The second day of diving was wonderful, 4 dives in the stunning Richelieu Rock as always !
Ghostpipefish, Seahorse, Ribbon Eel, Harlequin shrimps, zebra morray, peacock mantis shrimp, a lot of glassfish and an incredible amount of schooling fish.

Direction the Similan National Park to dive on the incredible dive sites of Tachai Pinnacle and Koh Bon. Black tip reef sharks, three matings octopus, huge school of barracuda, pregnant lobsters and school of batfish.

Thank you for choosing The Smiling Sea Horse and see you soon above or underwater.

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Whale sharks expedition, 04th to 12th February 2023

20/2/2023

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This week marked our third collaboration with Thai Whale Sharks, as we welcomed Marine Biologist and the founder of the project, Kirsty Magson onboard for 8 days of diving as we explored the north and south Andaman on the lookout for the world’s biggest fish. Kirsty delivered daily lectures on all things' shark as she educated guests on Whale Shark Ecology, Shark Biology, Threats to Sharks, Ecotourism, Whale Shark Conservation, Whale Shark Feeding and the Process behind Whale Shark ID. The trip was built around dive sites that offered the best chance to spot some of these gentle giants, so a lot of time was spent looking in the blue, but how did we get on?

The sunset and...

the moon...

Departing from Phuket the first stop on the agenda was Koh Haa and Lanta National Park to dive Hin Muang and Hin Daeng. Theses dive sites famous for the Dendronepthya soft corals which give these sites their names offered a lot of very fishy encounters as we were surrounded by schooling jacks, emperor fish and some were lucky enough to find 2 stone fish relaxing on the reef. Unfortunately, no signs of anything big in the blue this day but we did encounter some very large sea hares (Dolabella auricularia).

dive sites were super fishy

Barracuda's school

Day 2 and 3, we headed to Tarutao National Park, for dives sites such as steps, 8 miles Rock and of course Stonehenge. These 2 days provided us with Frogfish, seahorses, cat sharks, sea slugs, a wide array of hard and soft coral diversity and even a quick hello from another of the gentle giants, the Manta Ray (unfortunately not in front of Franck's lense so no photo...)

Flounder perfectly hiding on the sand

Day 4 marked our return to Koh Haa but this time we explored the Cathedral (the perfect place for a photo op) and Chimney before a sunset dive at Shark Point on the lookout for the Leopard Sharks (also called zebra shark).

Cathedral, Koh Ha, South Andaman

Koh Ha, South Andaman

Cute and beautiful... Leopard aka Zebra shark!

Across the groups we encountered not 1, not 2 but 3 zebra sharks, so there were many happy faces upon the return to the boat.

Day 5 and we headed North to the Similans to explore Shark Fin Reef, Elephant Head and Three Trees. Octopus and Ribbon Eels were high on everyone’s list of must-see animals. The Similans also provided an opportunity to jump off the boat and feel sand between our toes as we headed to the beach at…….. and the chance of an encounter with the Nicobar Pigeon. We ended the day with a sunset dive at Koh Bon and a blackwater dive, the first for many aboard (and most certainly not the last) with snake blennies, paper nautilus and so much more being seen.
The next day brought us to Koh Taa Chai, encounters with Black Tip and White Tip Reef Sharks as well as Eagle Rays and the school of Barracuda made for some amazing diving.

Snake blennie

Baby boxfish

Paper nautilus

Day 7 and it was off to Richelieu Rock for 4 dives, and what a day we picked. Conditions were incredible with amazing visibility, low currents and of course some of the best diving in Thailand. The schools of jacks, glass fish, rainbow runners and emperor fish meant there was activity all through the water column and closer to the ground, we found Harlequin Shrimp, Seahorses, Sea Slugs, Peacock Mantis Shrimp and more.

Wonderful Arlequin shrimp on her prey

Cute Pikachu nudi!

A cowrie shell in the light...

Beautiful porcelain crab on anemone

To round off the trip, we ended with 2 dives on the Boonsung Wreck ahead of landing in Khao Lak. The wreck was destroyed in the tsunami, but offers a wide array of marine life living in all the nooks and crannies that can be found. Cat sharks, sea slugs, cuttlefish, and the honeycomb moray eel were favorites of the day and a great way to round off the trip.
Whilst we weren’t lucky enough to encounter any whale sharks on this trip, we were fortunate to enjoy some incredible diving with some amazing marine life. So, until our next adventure, thanks for reading.

Love for the Ocean!

So happy to dive with The Smiling Seahorse!

So happy diving with you all on The Smiling Seahorse!

Our special whale sharks in 2024:

Wanna learn something new from Kistry on our next Whale shark and marine bio expedition?!
Save the date for the next edition!

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Chinese New Year Trip onboard: North to South Andaman from 20th to 25th of January 2023

4/2/2023

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Happy Chinese New Year from the whole team of The Smiling Seahorse !!!

Wishing you all a joyous and prosperous Year of the Rabbit, filled with love, happiness, and success! As we turn the page on another chapter, let us embrace the opportunities and challenges that come with it. Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to serving you in the coming year. Happy New Year!"

Chinese New Year ceremony

This week we started with a beautiful day in Surin National Park with a very international group of divers from France, Japan, Belgium, China, Germany, and the United States. As usual, Richelieu offered us some amazing dives, and we got lucky, witnessing a ghost pipe fish releasing its eggs and a harlequin shrimp eating a sea star. The reef was alive with big fish hunting in schools of glass fish.

Entering the Similan National and spending the second day in Koh Tachai and Koh Bon for 4 great dives including a night dive. Turtle, lobsters, barracudas, trevallies, fusilliers and some spanish dancer eggs. Cruising south in the archipelago and diving Three trees, Elephant head rock and West of Eden. We love those dive sites for the macro, nudis, crustaceans.

The following 3 days we dive around Lanta and Tarutao National Park. The dive sites are always wonderful, the amount and the diversity of the coral reef impress us every time.

We encounter some weird and cute creatures during the blackwater dive.

Last day in Phi Phi island and shark point with black tip reef shark, lots of beauty nudis and flat worms. Congratulations to Coralie, Anthony, and Phoebe for their Enriched Air Nitrox course and Kevin for the double certifications (Enriched Air Nitrox & Advanced Open Water course)
Thank you all for choosing The Smilling Seahorse!
Hope you had a great holiday!!