Blog Archives

Manta rays in Mergui Archipelago...

31/12/2012

Mantas have arrived and we are very excited about it! Because lets be honest, mantas are awesome!
How to approach Manta correctly?

Divers love to catch a glimpse of Manta rays gliding in the blue...
Not only it is respectful of the animals but when divers follow good behavior guidelines, encounters usually last longer. Manta rays are actually quite curious creature and stick around divers for long period of time.
Mantas are wild, sensitive creatures, follow these guidelines to dive with Manta in an ethical manner:
- don't splash the water while entering it and use your fins below the water.
- approach manta from where they can see you (their side) and no less than 3 meters from them.
- do not chase & do not touch!

Mobulas ray

Why this name Manta?

The name "manta" is Portuguese and Spanish for mantle (cloak or blanket), a type of blanket-shaped trap traditionally used to catch rays. Mantas are known as "devil fish" because of their horn-shaped cephalic fins, which are imagined to give them an "evil" appearance.
But it should not be associated with this diabolical appearance because the Manta is peaceful, curious, sensitive and so majestic!

Manta ray

Check out our latest pictures below, more on our facebook page

Tired of seeing them through your screen? Come join one of our next cruises! Its perfect time for Manta sighting! We saw 4 on the last trip...

Check out our schedule

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How to avoid ear injury while scuba diving

29/12/2012

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One of the most common injuries while diving is a painful Middle Ear barotrauma, I’m sure you all felt a squeeze in your ears, even when only snorkeling and trying to go a few centimeters below the surface without equalizing, while diving, your ear are subject to the pressure around you and this squeeze can become very painful and cause serious permanent damage to your ear.

As you might know, pressure increase when going deeper below the surface. Your middle ear is a dead air space, connected to the back of your throat by the normally closed Eustachian canals, if you fail to fill up this space with air when the pressure around you increases (this is called equalizing) this is what’s happening:

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Explore Myanmar and Thailand, December 2012

29/12/2012

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Blotched stingray vs nurse shark...

Blotched stingray

Cuttle fish

18th of December, one of our favorite dive site awaits us on that 3rd day into our very popular trip “exp lore Burma”, today we dive shark cave… This pace is amazing, always full of surprises!
I know it’s going to be a thrilling experience for Romain and Carol-Ann… inside the cave the way is obstructed by 2 massive blotched stingrays, that keep us from going all the way through… “it was a WOW feeling” Romain said. On our 2dn dive there we found 2 harlequin shrimps, and 2 cuttle fish. For the night dive some hunting trevallies bumped us into ,very freaking feeling, and a huge great barracuda came to hunt in the beam of our light, awesome, really!

Current in the Mergui archipelago...

Going down the anchor line

Clown fish

Hawk fish

19th of December, It is time now for our newbies to experience current, like strong current! The Mergui archipelago is an awesome place to dive and it has this particularity to have a lot of current, and open water divers certifying there are far more advanced than the ones learning in quiet waters…
The current is strong enough, that day, to decide to go down grabbing the anchor line; we are like flags onto that line, pretty fun. Once we are at the bottom we let go of the line and find a place to hide from the current, so we can admire the barracuda hunting on the spot in the blue, where the current is the strongest, very impressive… We have a chance to look for macro life as well and we find a magnificent partner shrimp, inside an anemone with some squat shrimps. A little further there are many clown fish and a super nice hawk fish. When the air supply got low we went up and got caught in the current which was a lot of fun to see the rock passing by, I deployed the SMB and the dingy came to pick us up, great fun and good experience for my students.

Deep and Night dive specialty training

Mergui Archipelago

20th of December, after doing 2 dives at the well-known Seafan forest where we found an eagle ray and a school of tunas, we head towards Western Rocky, where we will be able to complete the deep specialty with Thierry. On our way down, (up to 40 meters) we stop by the frog fish spot to admire these very hard to find walking fish. Once at the bottom we do few skills to experience the nitrogen narcosis and we work our way up to shallower depth so we do not exceed the allowed bottom time.
It was a success Thierry has very well coped with the depth, it is now time to think of the night dive training, which we will do in the same area, it’s all going to be about night navigation with compass only, Very similar as navigation in a “no viz” condition.

Christmas at Surin Islands...

24th of December, this is our Christmas trip and we go to Surin islands National park. We left Ranong yesterday so we could already be on the dive spot early this morning.
The usual barracudas are here as well as few batfish, always very friendly and curious all of this with a crystal clear visibility. Then later in the day we go to the sea gypsies’ village, that’s a very interesting experience, the cultural gap between this tribe and us makes it a very entertaining encounter.
It’s time now for the afternoon dive, how lucky are we to find an Ornate ghost pipefish and the very rare Barramundi.. During the night dive you can see thousands of shrimps dancing around with their tiny eyes staring at you, beautiful!
Now it’s Christmas eve’ and a delicious Lamb leg is on the BBQ, the Christmas decorations are up, including the Christmas tree! What a great atmosphere, good diving, good food, good people, awesome!

The Mantas are back!

Manta ray encounter

Manta in deep blue sea

25th of December, Christmas day… I wish to get some Mantas for this upcoming dive! We go to Koh Tachai pinnacle. That’s a cleaning station very famous for Mantas sighting, let’s keep our fingers crossed…
As soon as we hit the water, they are there! Finally, that’s the first time of the season that we see them… 2 of them are flying around us passing by again and again, There are so many fish to look at but we can’t get our eyes off the mantas, they are so gracious and so big absolutely fantastic. When the time is up we head towards the mooring line but we don’t want to get out of the water as long as we still have a bit of air in our tanks, we keep staring at them, and as if they felt flattered they come around us just so we can enjoy the show a little bit longer…
What a dive!

Sex on the reef...

26th of December, the weather doesn’t allow us to go all the way to Koh Bon, so we decide to go to Richelieu Rock. Although the dive site is amazing, we still have the mantas in our minds…
The rock is covered by reddish soft corals, Huge school of yellow fusiliers make it fun to swim through them, barracudas cruising around and giant trevalis hunting in the blue, very nice.
Lower down there are 3 cuttlefish fighting for 1 female it’s mating time…

29th of December, we are back to Burma, which I particularly like because (but not only) we are always alone on every dive site!

Customers reviews

Plus de couleurs... More colors...

"comment est ce qu'on va pouvoir s'amuser maintenant, les prochaines plongées vont probablement ressembler a une photo sans filtre rouge, ou tout est monochrome et sans couleur"...
"how are we going to have fun now, the next dives will probably look like a photo without a red filter, or everything is monochrome and colorless"...

Some great dive sites...

"Manta, seen, Rays, Seen, Seahorse, seen. Some great dive sites, favorite is black Rock."

Mantas, requin baleine, requin leopard et guitar hero! On a tout vu... Mantas, whale sharks, leopard sharks and guitar heroes! We saw everything ...

"Vraiment une belle croisière, bien dosée à tout point de vue" "Les plongées furent divines: un festival de mantas, requin baleine, requin léopard et "guitar hero"! On a tout vu!"
"Truly a beautiful cruise, well balanced in every way" "The dives were divine: a festival of mantas, whale shark, leopard shark and guitar hero! We have seen everything!"

6 jours de plaisir partages sur et sous l'eau... nombreuses plongées superbes... 6 days of fun sharing on and under water ... many superb dives ...

"Le soleil commence a descendre sur la mer et les pagodes dorées de ce petit port Birman... 6 jours d'excellente entente et de plaisir partages sur et sous l'eau... nombreuses plongées superbes"
Franck et Camille parfaits a tous les niveaux, l’équipage aux petits soins, le cuisinier irremplaçable..."
"The sun begins to descend on the sea and the golden pagodas of this small Burmese port ... 6 days of excellent understanding and pleasure shared on and under the water ... many superb dives"
Franck and Camille perfect at all levels, the crew very attentive, the irreplaceable cook ... "

wonderful liveaboard experience

"Thanks you so much for the wonderful liveaboard experience. The trip was much more than expected"

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Manta rays in Mergui Archipelago...

How to avoid ear injury while scuba diving

Explore Myanmar and Thailand, December 2012

Blotched stingray vs nurse shark...

Current in the Mergui archipelago...

Deep and Night dive specialty training

Christmas at Surin Islands...

The Mantas are back!

Sex on the reef...

Customers reviews

Plus de couleurs... More colors...

Some great dive sites...

Mantas, requin baleine, requin leopard et guitar hero! On a tout vu... Mantas, whale sharks, leopard sharks and guitar heroes! We saw everything ...

6 jours de plaisir partages sur et sous l'eau... nombreuses plongées superbes... 6 days of fun sharing on and under water ... many superb dives ...

wonderful liveaboard experience

The Smiling Seahorse Diving Blog

Authors

Categories

Archives

See also...

Our dive cruises

More information

The Smiling Seahorse

TripAdvisor

Manta rays in Mergui Archipelago...

How to avoid ear injury while scuba diving

Explore Myanmar and Thailand, December 2012

Blotched stingray vs nurse shark...

Current in the Mergui archipelago...

Deep and Night dive specialty training

Christmas at Surin Islands...

The Mantas are back!

Sex on the reef...

Customers reviews

Plus de couleurs... More colors...

Some great dive sites...

Mantas, requin baleine, requin leopard et guitar hero! On a tout vu... ​Mantas, whale sharks, leopard sharks and guitar heroes! We saw everything ...

6 jours de plaisir partages sur et sous l'eau... nombreuses plongées superbes... ​6 days of fun sharing on and under water ... many superb dives ...

wonderful liveaboard experience

The Smiling Seahorse Diving Blog

Authors

Categories

Archives

See also...

Our dive cruises

More information

The Smiling Seahorse

TripAdvisor

Mantas, requin baleine, requin leopard et guitar hero! On a tout vu... Mantas, whale sharks, leopard sharks and guitar heroes! We saw everything ...

6 jours de plaisir partages sur et sous l'eau... nombreuses plongées superbes... 6 days of fun sharing on and under water ... many superb dives ...