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A Whale shark spotted on Richelieu rock March 30th 2021!

25/3/2021

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​March 25th marked the departure of a very special liveaboard: our Manta and Whaleshark expedition 2021 and we got lucky!!!
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​We had been working on putting this exciting trip together for the past few month, and it was an absolute pleasure to welcome onboard 2 lovely marine biologists: Ms. Jamie Piyada Monmaneerat, project leader of Thailand Manta Project and Ms. Kirsty Magson, conservationist currently documenting on the whale shark population in Thailand who alternated giving us daily presentations on Mantas, Sea slugs, Whale Sharks and the damage of plastic on the environment. 
Manta rays conservationist Jamie Piyada Monmaneerat
Thailand Manta Project leader: Ms. Jamie Piyada Monmaneerat
Koh Tao Whale Shark leader: Marine Biologist and Conservationist Kirsty Magson
Ms. Kirsty Magson - Thai Whale shark project leader
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Manta ray presentation
​We sailed off from Ranong early morning with a boat full of enthusiastic divers and our itinerary took us to Koh Chi in Surin national park, Koh Tachai, Koh Bon, Rocky Point, 3 Trees, Turtle Rock, Nam Chai in the Similan islands before heading back north at Richelieu Rock; A total of 21 beautiful dives. 
mid water liveaboard diving photography
Split photo of our beloved MV Smiling Seahorse liveaboard
​We had amazing weather conditions with blue skies and sunshine during the whole trip and as could be expected during full moon, we faced a considerable amount current during some of our dives, but this also brought it’s reward: currents make the perfect conditions to bring in large pelagic! 
On the first 20 dives, we saw turtles, jenkill rays, an eagle ray, reef sharks, countless amounts of nudibranchs, harlequin shrimp, a giant frog fish, pairs of ghostpipe fish, more anemone fish eggs now showing their eyes, and many schools of jacks, trevallies, barracudas and fusilliers and so much more!
Jenkill Ray
Jenkill Ray
Harlequin shrimp
Harlequin shrimp on its seastar
Ghost pipe fish thailand red
Yawning frog fish
On the very last dive, we were greeted upon entering the water for our very last dive of the trip by a stunning baby male whaleshark who graciously swam around us for the whole duration of our dive on top of Richelieu Rock. What a show!! He passed, disappeared, came back until we ran out of air... As whaleshark sightings have been sparse this season, we felt so privileged to witness this encounter and emotional that it lasted so long. What an amazing way to end our trip! 
whale shark and marine conservationist at richelieu rock, thailand march 30th 2021
We encountered this wonderful whale shark at Richelieu Rock - credit Alex Tyrell, Dive4photos
Kirsty quickly looked into her whale shark database and was delighted to record this new individual as part of the whale shark population!
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​Another highlight of the trip was the return of Alex Tyrrell onboard, professional photographer who organized 3 black water dives. What an amazing surprise when we saw a Nautilus swimming at 5 meters on our 2nd black water dive! If you haven’t tried Black water diving yet, and you are an avid photographer, we highly recommend it, we are surely hooked!
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Female Paper Nautilus
squid on black background
squid
small fish in black water dive
During our last cruise we also encountered a juvenile sail fish, baby octopuses and so much more! Apparently we found a great spot to find wonderful and rare sea treasures and will incorporate black water dives more regularly on our cruises!
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As when all good things come to an end, we felt sad to say goodbye, but happy we made new friends with the lovely guests we had onboard this week and thankful for the fantastic time we have shared.

Keep tuned for more fishy stories! to learn about Marine life in the Andaman Sea.
​We still have some space onboard for the Last month of the season! See you soon!
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The 9th to 13th March Thailand cruise... A special UW photographers!

15/3/2021

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We sailed off from Ranong on March 9th with 15 dive professionals from Phuket, Koh Samui and Koh Tao for a unique “Photographer Special” expedition.

The 9th to 13th March Thailand cruise... A special UW photographers!
Another special trip onboard MV Smiling Seahorse; On the agenda, a total of 15 dives: 10 dives on Richelieu rock, 2 on Koh Bon, 1 on Koh Tachai and 2 amazing black water dives!

In Richelieu Rock it is always a difficult to select what lense to use for a dive as the marine life is so diverse from the smallest to the biggest critters, we alternated wide angle and macro lenses to capture the best of Richelieu Rock; our regular underwater friends the harlequin shrimp (we even saw a few cute little babies this time), the giant frog fish (yay, he is back after hiding so well on our last visit), the ghost pipe fish (2 pairs), the baby seahorse (as well as an adult yellow tiger tail seahorse) were all dashing and ready to pose for our cameras. We also saw so many cowries, they seem to be in season at the moment!
Tomato clownfish
Tomato clownfish
Squirel fish back from too much partying
Squirel fish back from too much partying
The visibility was a good allowing 30m of crystal clarity on most dives which paved the way for glorious encounters with a few tornados of jacks and schools of barracudas to please the videographers. One group of lucky divers even spent a nice moment with a passing eagle ray!
Baby harlequin shrimp
Baby harlequin shrimp
Ghost pipefish
Ghost pipefish
Our 8th dive of the trip on March 11th was something completely new to us and to many of our divers: a blackwater dive. Due to logistics, we split the groups in 2 and organized 2 back-to-back dives for an intimate group of 10. The principle for this is to set up a floating line in the blue with multiple lights attached to it, that attract plankton which in turn attract small fish, which potentially attract bigger fish. Depth for the dive was capped at 18 meters, and we ran approximately 45 minutes dive in the dark, in awe face to the plankton, larvaes, squids and jellyfish. 
Baby box fish black water dive
Baby box fish
Shell black water
A little seashell in black water
surgeon fish larvae on a black water dive
Sureon Fish Larvae
On Friday, we headed towards Koh Bon where we dove the coral-covered pinnacle. We love it for the mystical feeling it gives us knowing that there are always chances of a glimpse at something big! One group enjoyed a beautiful eagle ray at depth, while the others discovered a cool stone fish hiding on the top. Dive 2 and 3 saw us diving koh Tachai, where the usual school of barracudas was hanging out in the blue, as well as the trigger fish and the sweet lips. One group even lucked out by sighting a leopard shark! 

At night, we were all ready for our second black water dive! We inverted groups and those who jumped in first the previous night jumped in second this time and off we went for an incredible 45 minutes dive. Much to our surprise and awe, the waters were full of newly hatched baby sailfish that we felt so incredibly privileged to admire and capture on camera as well as a deep water fish rarely seen by any diver: a juvenile tripod fish, still living the pelagic life befor settling down on the deep sea floor!
There were also lots of squids, alien looking plancton shapes, jellys, baby crabs, little fish larvea, squid and even a pelagic yellow snake! It was a truly a amazing dive! Now that we have discovered blackwater diving, we are surely hooked!!
juvenile tripod fish black water dive rare critter
We were very lucky to find this extremely rare deep water fish: a juvenile tripod fish still living as a pelagic before settling down on the deep seafloor
Sail fish
And also very rare: a Juvenile Sail fish
We celebrated our underwater discoveries with our customary bbq night and drinks, and sailed back to Richelieu rock for our last day.

You might know the saying "less is more"? Well, this surely didn’t apply to our last day at Richelieu rock and we would even go further and say we just can’t get enough of this dive site!!  If you want to take a cruise of a week on Richelieu Rock, we might be the right boat for you!
Giant frogfish
Giant frogfish
Underwater photography
Tornado of Jackfish posing for the camera
Deep blue love
Deep blue love
Batfish portrait
Batfish and more...
Highlight of the day was going back to visit the clark’s anemone nest we had seen on our last trip, and even finding a new nest this time of tomatoe anemone fish full of tinny little eye-baring eggs! A cuttlefish made an appearance and we spotted a bamboo shark resting in a crevasse. We bid farewell to all our regular buddies: the ghost pipefish, the giant frog fish, the harlequin shrimp, the school of fusiliers and can’t wait to visit them on our next trip.

See you again next Week Richelieu and to all our wonderful guests onboard this trip, we certainly look forward to have you back onboard (next week for some, soon & later for the others) !
Giant frogfish very closed
Giant frogfish very closed
Jackfish
Jackfish

Our Liveaboard trips
Only one month left of this "out-of-this-word season"!
Join us for an unforgettable cruise, Thailand has never offered such fantastic dives away from the crowd! Conditions are amazing with more than 30-40 m visibility, Macro life is striving and we just can't get enough!
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4th to the 7th of March 2021: a lucky cruise with a majority of scuba diving girls

7/3/2021

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From 4th to the 7th of March 2021 diving cruise... 4 days full of fun! and girls!
The Smiling Seahorse’s last trip felt very exclusive with only 9 guests onboard, including 6 members of the “girls that scuba” group and it was also the occasion to welcome a new female team member: Laurence, dive master who wrote this blogpost today :)
Beautiful eagle ray
Beautiful eagle ray
Blue shaded ornate ghost pipefishes
Ornate ghost pipefishes
portrait of a ghost pipe fish in thailand
portrait!
We started the itinerary with a check dive on Surin islands, were we bumped into a cute yellow box fish, some peacock mantis shrimp and an eagle ray, who came to greet us. One group saw again the elusive Giant guitar shark who is often seen but never photographed this season!
We knew then that this trip was going to be a good one! The day continued at the South of Surin with a night dive. There, the highlight was seeing the sleeping parrot fish in their bubble, the beautiful sail-fin surgeon fish, and active moray eels hunting out of their holes. Our night dive was a bit late this week, we jumped in at 8pm when the sea was completely dark and night critters already well on their way.
Underwater
Underwater "splash" effect of an above water waterfall
Clown fishes and their anemone
Clown fishes and their anemone
After a good night sleep, we made it to Koh Bon, were the first dive saw us jumping on the Pinnacle. Here, we were lucky enough to encounter 4 massive marble rays at the bottom who shallowed up so we could enjoy spending time with them, and in the blue, we were mesmerized by a school of barracuda and a second eagle ray swimming right towards us. The curious batfish buddied up with us for a while as well.
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Beautiful sea fans and varieties of fishes...
Beautiful sea fans and varieties of fishes...
2 Arlequin shrimps on their prey
2 Arlequin shrimps on their prey
Our next stop was Koh Tachai, where we dove twice, first on the second pinnacle, and then on the first pinnacle. The visibility was exceptional and the schools of fish remined us of a ballet until the green monster hit us, showing a varied temperature from 31 degrees to 27 degrees in an instant. The feeling of it passing by is quite special, one second the visibility is perfect and the water is warm, and the next your sight is blurry and the water becomes colder. Fish tend to avoid it so the closer the Green monster gets to you; the more schools of fishes are pushed towards you. We especially enjoyed the swim through on the first pinnacle, as well as the beautiful purple coral. 
yello goat fish school in deep blue water with divers
Yellow Goatfish school in the deep blue water
Bent stick pipe fish diving surin national park thailand
Bent Stick pipe fish
From there, we sailed to Richelieu rock, for a 4 dives day. Our new favorite friend, the baby seahorse was in the same spot where we had seen him last week. Our regular partners in crime, the harlequin shrimps, cowries, ghost pipe fish, batfish and the schools or fusiliers were all here too, and during the afternoon dives, what a thrill it was to look into the blue at the schools of giant trevallies, schools of jacks, yellow fin barracudas out for the hunt. A few of us were lucky enough to get a glimpse at the future generation of clark’s anemonefish before they hatch. We can’t wait to visit them on the 10th to see how they grow. 
nurturing clark anemone fish blowing water on her eggs
Mama Clark anemone fish blowing on her chicks
Do you see all those little eyes looking at you? Anemone fish eggs...
Do you see all those little eyes looking at you??? Clark anemone fish in the making...
We finished off the trip with our usual Ti’ Ponch and Barbecue night, under the shinning stars as we sailed back to Ranong. It’s was nice to meet you all, guys and can’t wait to have you back onboard again.
Happy divers in Thailand
Girls that scuba in Thailand
Hello from 2 happy mermaids...
More happy mermaids...
atmospher on the MV Smiling Seahorse after the dives
Another lovely night onboard the Smiling Seahorse...
guestbook march 2021
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25th to 28th February: a busy weekend on Richelieu Rock

5/3/2021

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Richelieu Rock was fantastic but so busy!

trip reports from surin and similan cruise in february 2021
We had the pleasure to welcome once more a bunch of lovely british expats from Bangkok and Hua Hin onboard MV Smiling Seahorse. The 26th of February was Makha Bucha, a public holidays and the second most important Buddhist festival, celebrated on the full moon day of the third lunar month in Thailand. Because of this it seems like all divers in Thailand congregated to Surin and Similan National Park to celebrate together! And we found ourself in the middle of 12 liveaboard in Richelieu Rock.
This didn't stop us from having a fantastic time and conditions where stunning with a sea as flat as a lake, visibility of 30 meters and an abundance of sealife!
two divers holding hands in front of the fishy coral reef
fishy dive
We started in the North of Surin islands National park at Koh chi where we saw again a guitar shark on the sandy bottom. Once more it passed in front of mesmerised divers but away from the cameras! We also spotted a sleeping white tip and all of this only on the very first dive... great way to get back into diving!
giant seafan and barracuda school
angelfish pair in thailand with blue line and yellow lips
We started the second day on Koh Bon pinnacle at slack time with no current and Franck spotted there 3 of the biggest giant barracudas he has ever seen. They came towards him and opened their giant mouth full of needle like teeth. A bit scary, but also thrilling! (once more no camera, damn!)
small fish in green grass
school of snappers
This week was also a full moon week so we had some current when the tide was going up and down, which attracted so much life closer to the reef for a giant hunt!
full moon in the similan national park
clownfish in anemone thailand
Koh Tachai pinnacle in the afternoon was even more fishy with a tornado of trevallis: blue fins, giant, golden and bigeye trevalli swirling in front of us in deep blue water! Wow! 
bluefin trevallis in Koh Tachai
giant seafan in thailand with a scubadiver
The friendly Batfish were still here and came to say hello and we found a red reef rose: the eggs of a Spanish dancer nudibranch which lay hundreds of thousands of tiny eggs all stuck together in a soft, gelatinous material in circular rows giving it the appearance of rose petals. If you look close you can see each small eggs!
school of batfish Thailand
school of batfish Thailand
Reef rose in Thailand, Spanish dancer eggs
Reef rose in Thailand, Spanish dancer eggs
To continue, in the sea slug family, we saw many false-cowries this week: Ovulids are a type of seashells with colourful ornamental patterns on mantles they can stretch over their shells to cover it in incredible colours, some of them really look like aliens! 
pink ovulid thailand
red ovulid surin
tiger egg cowrie in Richelieu rock, surin, thailand
We did 4 dives at Richelieu Rock and didn't get bored of it! 4 harlequin shrimps, 2 ghost pipe fish, a tornado of trevallis and more schooling baracudas kept us entertained!
Portrait of a squirrel fish in Surin national park
ornate ghost pipe fish richelieu rock
The sea was so flat that we slept and partied on top of Richelieu Rock with no one remaining to enjoy our music! 
Thanks to all participants for the awesome time we had with you and we hope to see you again very soon!
A big congratulation to 3 new Nitrox divers: Sam, Christine and Gregor!

Keep tuned for more fishy stories and join us to be a part of one of them! 
If you are looking for a special cruise, we are running Thailand's first Manta and Whale Shark expedition in collaboration with 2 local marine biologists specialized in these gentle giants!
​Book now!
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Thank you so much for your lovely reviews! 

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    The Smiling Seahorse Diving Blog

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    ​The Smiling Seahorse has been running dive cruises from Ranong since 2012.
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  • When & Where
    • Schedule and Prices
    • Destinations >
      • North Andaman Thailand >
        • Similan Islands
        • Surin Islands >
          • Richelieu rock
        • The essential Underwater photo Guide to diving Thailand
      • South Andaman Thailand >
        • Phuket & Koh Phi Phi National Parks
        • Koh Lanta National Park
        • Koh Lipe and Tarutao National Park
      • Mergui Archipelago >
        • Marine life in the Andaman Sea
        • Burma's best dive sites
        • The Ultimate Underwater photo Guide to diving Burma
  • ABOUT
    • Our Boat >
      • DELICIOUS FOOD
    • Diving in Thailand
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    • Itineraries
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  • PROMO
    • HOT DEALS
    • Special Expeditions >
      • Ultimate Underwater photo combo expeditions
      • Video & photo expedition North Andaman 05 Nov 2023
      • Blackwater expedition 23 Jan 2024
      • UW Photo clinic North Andaman 31 Jan 2024
      • Special Marine Biology - 18 Feb 2024
      • Whale Shark Special - 19 Mar 2024 - North and South
      • Manta rays expedition - 20 April 2024
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