Team tech says "Richelieu Rocks" 17th to 21st of Feb 2021!

25/2/2021

This week was something new for us as we welcomed 8 tech divers + 3 tech guides onboard going on 2 hours long dives on Thailand's best dive sites. Our itinerary changed slightly this week and we started on the stunning Richelieu Rock for a days, spent a second day at Koh Bon, a full day at Koh Tachai and a dive at Richelieu before heading back.

What was neither new, nor a surprise was the quality of the dives. Diving conditions are at their best this time of the year and over 30 m viz is becoming the norm!

Visibility in koh bon thailand in February 2021

Koh Bon pinnacle from afar...

Richelieu was the highlight for macro life seekers, there are many ghost pipe fish and tiger egg cowries to be found on the seafans at the moment, the harlequin shrimps were posing for us and we met a new baby seahorse, isn't he sooo cute!

We were also delighted to find again the Giant frog fish which lives at the bottom of Thailand's best dive site since the beginning of the season. Let's hope he stay there until the end!
We also found 3 red Freckled Frogfishes camouflaging so well in the crack they hide in!

Freckled Frogfish richelieu rock thailand dive site

Koh Tachai was the highlight for those loving big schools of fishes. In particular the baraccudas who formed a giant tornado around us!

baracudas school in koh tachai thailand 2021

We had 2 rebreather onboard, 10 divers in side mounts and 12 divers in single tanks. With 4 tech and 4 recreational drop of and pick up per day, we kept well busy!

emperor fish in Richelieu rock thailand andaman sea

Time onboard was also well appreciated: we dived, we ate (4 delicious meals per day!) and we slept! And that's the recipe for a fantastic long diving gateway!
And on the way back we were welcomed back into Ranong province by a great pod of dolphin!

food onboard mv smiling seahorse thailand liveaboard

spare ribs on the BBQ

sleeping in the hamac on mv smiling seahorse

Nap time on the roof top :)

Thank you all for coming from Bangkok, Koh Tao and Lipe and we look forward to seeing you again very soon!
You can find all the photos from this trip in this facebook album.

Built by and for divers in 2018, MV Smiling Seahorse is the newest dive boat around. Join us for an unforgettable diving adventure in Thailand's top dive sites!
6D Thailand Manta and wale sharks expedition:
Thailand's best Dive weekend: Surin islands and Richelieu Rock
4D Thailand:
Best of Thailand Dive Cruise: Surin, Koh Tachai, Koh Bon and Richelieu Rock
5D Thailand:
Best of Thailand Dive Cruise: Surin, Similan and Richelieu Rock
7D Thailand:
DIVE ALL OF Surin, Similan and Richelieu Rock

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Surin, Koh Bon, Tachai and Richelieu on the 12th of Feb 2021

25/2/2021

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Wow, what a trip!
Thailand has experienced a new covid wave this last month so we had to cancel all our cruises. But we were able to return to the sea last week to superb conditions in the Surin and Similan Islands. We also had to the pleasure to welcome back 6 return guests and made 9 new friends which made it even more exciting to go back to these beautiful sites with a bunch of fun people for an amazing trip!
And we were so lucky! Mother Nature provided wonderful gifts to us on this cruise.

Surin, Koh bon, Tachai and Richelieu on the 17th of Feb 2021

On our very first dive we were welcomed to Surin Islands National Park by a majestic giant guitar fish swimming towards us and giving us a good show before departing. It stayed around us long enough to take in all the details of this interesting creature and it was certainly the highlight of the dive.

Our second dive was special as we spotted a wonderpus octopus poking out of its sand burrow. We didn't think these cute creatures lived in Thailand so it was a great surprise!
PS: we unfortunately didn't get the photo of the rare critter and the bellow is a photo of the less rare but always charming reef octopus we encountered in Koh Bon :)

octopus in koh bon dive site in thailand

Can you spot the Octopus!

Our third dive was highlighted by a huge Napoleon Fish at Kitten City. In the large sand patches we also found many rays, including some blue spotted ribbon tail rays and the larger Jenkins rays. When we cruised over to the rocky area, we encountered quite a number of shy brown marbled groupers who snuck into the cracks as we got closer.
As we were taking a break on the boat between dives, we got to see another sea life show as a marlin jumped dozens of times around the boat. The Surin Islands delivered a truly fantastic day this week!

A super fishy week of diving.

At Ko Bon we were all hoping for something big in the blue and kept our eyes peeled. You see, there had been a big bull shark sighted there last week and that was quite an exciting prospect. One diver was lucky enough to spot a giant manta ray at Koh Bon ridge but the rest of the group missed it - bummer!

Some of us found luck later when we saw a black tip reef shark cruising along the ridge, along with a Maldive sponge snail on the pinnacle, and plenty of chevron barracuda and tunas hunting in the blue. A sea snake came by us as it was surfacing for a breath of air, and most of us got to see two mating octopus performing their Valentine dance. I swear I heard dolphin songs at the safety stop but never saw them.

We were surprised by a group of free divers at Koh Bon which made for nice photos :)

This week's visit to Ko Tachai was out of this world! We dived into 40 meter visibility and massive amounts of fish. We loved the giant trevallies most of all - they were absolutely huge! They had loads of friends around with schools of blue trevallies, jacks, emperor fish, and surgeon fish all hunting together in balls of glass fish. Impressive big lobsters were showing off on the sea floor and porcelain crabs delighted us in anemones.

A big hunting party wasn't shy to come close and give us a show.

Our barbecue night was again loads of fun and Simon gave us a scuba diving celebratory dance... I'll just leave those moves to your imagination haha!

Dance, dance, dance!

Always a big delicious meal on the barbecue!

We were so lucky to be alone underwater at the famous Richelieu Rock! Only one other boat was on site with us so we could get some diving away from the others and had the site to ourselves.

Thailand's number one dive site was not as fishy as Ko Tachai this week but was still exquisite. A school of chevron barracudas mingled with their cousins the yellowtail barracudas. We saw schools of batfish with a zebra murray at the safety stop. Hermit crabs were playing hide and seek at every crevace. We saw many colorful tiger egg cowries hanging out in sea fans, mantis shrimps, thazard fish tomato anemone fish, immaculate ghost pipefish, and frogfish all while being surrounded by trevallies. Some big tunas also passed by to gran up the smaller fish nearby.

A spooky ghost pipefish hiding in the rocks.

What a huge school of shiny batfish!

These bright tiger cowries always amaze!

We had an amazing trip with new and return friends!
A big thank you to Chris, Pook, Andrew, Mike and Gabriela for coming back!
A special congratulations to four new Open Water and Adventure Deep Diver students David, Gerard, Laura, and Arnaud.
And Congratulations as well to Lena on becoming an Enriched Air Diver and to Nikita and Rianne for their Adventure Deep Dive Certifications.

We hope to see you all again soon for new underwater adventures!

Thanks for coming everyone! What a great trip!

Are you crazy about Manta and whale sharks?
We have this cruise for you!

6D Thailand: Manta and whale shark expedition
2021 Manta and Whale Shark Diving expedition in Thailand
A special 6 days/ 5 nights cruise to learn more about Manta and whale sharks in Thailand from 25th to 30th of March 2021

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Good bye 2020, hello 2021!

8/1/2021

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Happy new year 2021 from The Smiling Seahorse crew!

We just returned from our first cruise into 2021 and must say the beautiful islands in Surin and Similan National Parks in Thailand delivered.

We were delighted to welcome back some familiar faces onboard! Nicola, we discovered The Smiling Seahorse last week couldn’t say goodbye and we were very happy to welcome her for a second week. We also welcomed back Jeff, Hiroshi and Dario who met onboard last year as well as our once Dive Master trainee: Kostas back for another cruise.
Thank you so much for your continuous support during good and bad years!

Happy new year 2021 from The Smiling Seahorse crew!

The highlights of the Surin islands this week were an enormous turtle cruising by as we searched out tiny cute pikachu nudibranchs (thecacera pacifica), eerie ghost pipefish, lobsters, vibrant peacock mantis shrimp and ornate tapestry shrimp. The variety of life and giant schools of fish kicked the trip off brilliantly.

Our second day was filled with some of our favorite locations in Similan as we explored Ko Tachai, Ko Bon, West of Eden and Deep Six. The bright soft fan corals and giant foam corals painted a beautiful underwater landscape as we floated through massive schools of fish in excellent visibility. Nudibranchs were everywhere, including some of our favorite slugs: psychedelic batwing slug (sagaminopteron psychedelicum) and piccachu (Thecacera pacifica)!

Barrel sponge and coral reef in thailand

beautiful purple nudibranch in Similan islands

The most exciting sighting of our trip happened at Shark Fin Reef : Not only did we see some white tip reef sharks sleeping under coral heads, but we also had a tiger shark saying hello at the safety stop!! Safety stops can really get thrilling with such a special guest visitor! Again no photo of this special guest who tend to show up only in front of divers when they don't have their camera!

Tuna Wreck at Anita’s Reef sent us into our deepest dive as we descended to catch a glipse of the unique ship tipped on its side at the bottom of the sea at around 30 meters.

We also experienced a fun filled dive at Elephant Head Rock, which led us through underwater boulders and swim throughs. We found more white tips reef sharks swimming and the trip of black, yellow, and blue ribbon eels poking out to say hello. Between dives we made a stop at Donald Duck Bay to enjoy the iconic rock formations and pristine white sand beach.

The journey back north toward Surin National Park held four more days of amazing sea life. We found bright tiger cowries latched on to fan corals, crabs nestled around their eggs, and nudibranchs galore!

tiger egg cowrie photo in Similans national park dive site

Ko Tachai was so fishy this week and we spent most of a dive in a swirling school of thousands of chevron barracuda covering the reff between 10-20 meters deep. The big fish kept coming through in massive schools of giant trevallies, bluefins trevallies, jackfish as well as 10 huge tunas passing on top of us! Wow!

We glided through schools of batfish, surgeon fish, rabbitfish and jackfish at Richelieu Rock. We found two giant frog fish this week, a bent stick pipe fish, seahorse and some ghost pipe fish. But what I loved most was an eagle ray passing less than a meter away on our night dive there!

We celebrated not only these beautiful sites but also a new year’s arrival! As we were moored in the Bay of Ko Bon, we enjoyed our infamous barbecue night and were gifted with the lovely voice of one of our passenger: an opera singer to start the year in beauty. It made the new year truly special for everyone and after a bit of dancing, singing and laughing we made it to bed awaiting for our dives on the 1st!

Our new year began with another amazing trip through our favorite Thai islands, and we are so grateful for our new and returning friends who joined us.

Thanks to Andrew for sharing your photos of the trip! And a special congratulations goes out to Martina and Fabian for completing their Nitrox certification course!

6 days/5night, 21 Dives!

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A wonderfull Christmas 2020 cruise to Surin and Similan!

28/12/2020

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Christmas 2020 cruise, a festive and exciting week of diving in Thailand

We just returned from a festive and exciting week of diving in Thailand. After our departure from Ranong, we picked up Gary and Lisa from Ko Phayam and had our diving group ready for an adventure into the Similan and Surin Islands!

Our first day was spent exploring Surin National Park where we were delighted to be greeted by friendly turtles and roaming napoleon wrasses. We looked a bit closer to search out iridescent peacock mantis shrimp, ghost pipefish, and loads of vibrant nudibranchs, including the cutest little Pikatchu nudibranch. The divers were especially excited when we sited a tiger shark! As calm and cute as a teddy bear.

Cutest little Pikachu nudibranch

The following day we cruised south to Ko Tachai and Ko Bon in Similan National Park. As we hopped into a calm sea, we were in luck and found awesome visibility. We descended into swarming schools of fishes such as batfish, goatfish, cobias and trevallies. As we peaked through corals to find colorful juvenile angelfish, groupers and parrotfish, we also spotted an eagle ray!

We descended into swarming schools of cobia

The reef was covered in glassfish

Batfishes

Even though we were overwhelmed with the beauty of the schooling fish, we had an exciting moment of finding a rare psychedelic batwing slug. What a trip!

Rare psychedelic batwing slug

In between dives, a friendly green turtle swam up for some air right next to our boat! We grabbed some snorkels and hopped in to say hello. It was so friendly that he stayed with us for some time to have a close look at us as well.

A marine turtle very friendly

After a comfortable night’s rest we traveled to our southernmost destinations. Beneath the famous submerged boulders, we spotted two juvenile white tipped reef sharks at Anita Reef and Shark Fin Reef.

Our sunset dive at Elephant Head Rock was filled with exhilarating swim throughs and lots of fish nibbling on their evening meals. The most beautiful ribbon eels in all three colours came out of their rocks to watch us swim by: yellow, blue and black, what a treat!

we spotted two juvenile white tipped reef sharks at Anita Reef and Shark Fin Reef

we spotted two juvenile white tipped reef sharks in the southern Similans

Night dive in Thailand

Our night dive at Elephant Head Rock was filled with exhilarating swim throughs

During this cruise we also partnered with the Similan National Park Rangers for a clean-up dive. We met the Rangers on the island and learned more about maintaining the natural beauty of these marine parks and were rewarded with awesome t-shirts to remember our time and work together in preserving the majestic homes of our underwater friends...

We met the Rangers on the island and learned more about maintaining the natural beauty of these parks and were rewarded with awesome t-shirts

Look at this bunch of awesome trash heros!

We were also rewarded with phenomenal visibility on our next dives as we descended into a tornado of shiny barracudas!

The clear visibility allowed us to spot a massive titan triggerfish nursery. There must have been 20-30 nests in the sand, all filled with mothers snuggled close to their babies and fathers swimming close by to ward off any predators. We made sure they felt safe as we kept our safe distance from this natural wonder.

Underwater garden in Thailand

The clear visibility allowed us to spot a massive titan triggerfish nursery

Awesome titan triggerfish nursery

a massive school of Barracudas in Similans

Our night dive at Ko Bon was full of excitement and oddities. A funky frogfish was hanging out with a Spanish dancer nudibranch in the rocks, and we spotted eerie sea snakes and ornate ghost pipefish.

ornate ghost pipefish

We returned to Ko Bon the following day to continue exploring one of the best sites on our trip. Franck decided to stay back on the sunset dive to grill up an epic Christmas Eve barbecue. The whole boat was rocking as we ate, drank and danced the night away! It was definitely a Christmas party that nobody will forget.

time for celebrate Christmas eve in style!

Christmas buffet on the Smiling Seahorse

we danced the night away and had so much fun!

On Christmas morning we received the gift of Richelieu Rock! This was the highlight of our trip as we donned our Santa hats and dived through mind-blowing schools of chevron and pick handle barracuda, huge red snappers, and flashy rainbow runners.

Hello! Can you see me?

Mr frogfish

We saw lionfish, frogfish, and scorpionfish as we cruised around the craggy site, and could not hold back our excitement at seeing a guitar shark join the party. After we passed some mating cuttlefish, we found a magnificent seahorse. A perfect ending to our holiday trip.

Our festive cruise had come to an end so we headed home, dropping Wendi off at Ko Phayam.

Thank you to all the divers who made it so memorable! And a big congratulations to Gabriella for her junior advanced open water diver certification, to Sylvia and Ben for their advanced open water diver certification, and to Nici for her advanced open water diver and nitrox certifications!

Follow us for more fishy stories!

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Our 28-30 november Thailand cruise

10/12/2020

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4 days of diving bliss in Surin and Similan national parks, November 2020

What a way to kick off the season aboard the MV Smiling Seahorse! Although international travel is still at a standstill and we couldn't visit our beloved Mergui Archipelago there is nothing to do but make the most of it! We had a magnificent tour through the Thai Surin and Similan Islands with a multicultural group of local vacationers happy to be on the sea away from the hustle and bustle of life. We have been waiting for this trip since Covid stole our heart and sea in March!

Very happy divers take the pause...

The first day was blessed with a gorgeous sunrise to set us off on our merry way. A bit of cloud cover over the course of the weekend made for very pleasant weather to go along with the up to 30m visibility and fish soup underwater.

Giant Seafan and diver...

Butterflie fish in front of glass fishes

We had a beautiful second day at Koh Bon and Koh Tachai where we got swarmed by fish, found gorgeous Nudibranchs and harlequin shrimp and one group even sighted the first Giant Manta ray of the season!

Our first Manta of the years! Thailand...

The last day of the trip brought big wind and waves so we headed to Surin island for a quiet night and first dive. We started the day at Yellow rock, with a lovely appearance from an Octopus and so many sweetlips everywhere. We then moved over to do two marvelous dives at Richelieu Rock featuring cuttlefish, ghost pipefish, giant frogfish, seahorses and all of the beautiful usual suspects.

Ghost pipefish

Giant Frogfish

We ended our cruise night diving in the Surin islands where we had the chance to encounter a shaded batfish, a little party of pipefish, some nice nudibranchs and cuttlefish!

Sweetlips

Photographer at Richelieu Rock

Special mentions and a HUGE congratulations to Menno and Sanne for becoming Advanced Open Water divers and also to Claire and Eva for completing their Enriched Air Nitrox course while on the trip! Happy future bubbles to you all!

Saron Shrimp

Very photogenic parrot fish...

Also wishing Sawittree all the best on her birthday! Thank you so much for choosing to celebrate with us!
Thanks for all the fish, friends. Hope to dive with you again soon!

Gorgeous buffet on the MV Smiling Seahorse

What a delicious salad!

Where are the best dive sites in Thailand? Discover the Surin and Similan Islands in the Andaman Sea… The best of Thailand the MV Smiling seahorse way!

SEE OUR SCHEDULES

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Breaking news: a tiger shark has been sighted in Similan Islands in Thailand

18/11/2020

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What a fantastic start to this much awaited diving season on Thailand's Andaman Sea! A Tiger shark has been sighted by several divers in Similan National park this week.

A tiger shark in Thailand's waters!

breaking news, a tiger shark spotted in similan islands thailand

A first time for Darren King and his buddies who has been diving in Thailand since 2005.
"We dropped usual place in Elephant Head Rock, Similan: southern side of the main rock, before the channel and the tiger shark came up from the deeper water to check us out. It came very close and there was no doubting it. "
Unfortunately this time the divers didn't have a camera to capture the moment but what a thrill!!!
Tiger sharks are very rarely sighted by divers as they usually prefer to live in deeper/ colder waters.

The Smiling Seahorse guests were also very lucky to spot a tiger shark twice last season at the nearby Burma banks : in March 2019 and November 2019.

Tiger shark spotted at the Burma Banks, myanmar in March 2019

Tiger shark photographed at the Burma Banks, Myanmar in March 2019 by The Smiling Seahorse

Another tigershark has been spotted and photographed by snorkelers in Surin islands in December 2019 but such sightings are so exceptional they are making the news!

snorkeling with a tiger shark in Surin islands, Thailand December 2019

Tiger shark photographed by a snorkeler in Surin islands in December 2019

Is there hope for Thailand's Sharks population?

Sharks have been slaughtered for decades for the meat and fins and shark population has decreased dramatically: some sharks number have seen a 90 percent cut in the last 50 years!

Finning, a practice where fishermen cut the shark's fins before discarding the rest of the body in the Ocean is now illegal in 52 countries but only 12 countries have banned shark fishing altogether. Unfortunately the practice is still legal in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

A recent study done by WildAid and Rapid Asia in Thailand, found that 57 percent of Thais living in urban areas have consumed shark fin at some point.

In recent year more and more campaigns have raised awareness about this cause and eating shark fin soup is loosing popularity.

In China, 85 percent of respondents to a recent survey reported they had stopped eating shark fin soup.

Such sightings of Tiger sharks in Similan, Thailand sure give us hope for the future of Shark population in Asia. Thailand still has a bountiful Marine life to explore!

Want to know more about these wonderful creatures? Check out our blog answering all the questions you may have about Tiger sharks.

And if you want to try your luck, come dive with us to Surin and Similan islands!
We still go room on these 3 trips in December 2020 with a 20% Discount!

join us in the hunt of this tiger shark in Thailand

Join us from 4th to 7th of january

similan and surin dive cruise in December 2020 Thailand

Spend Christmas or New year at sea and Dive Surin and Similan with us!

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101 Nudibranchs of Myanmar

29/8/2020

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Welcome to the vibrant world of nudibranchs

For me nudi-hunting is like collecting stamps...
You always want to find new ones for your private collection.

I remember the first time someone pointed out a nudibranch to me during a dive, gesturing towards a rock and signalling “Look, something small”. What felt like minutes went by as I squinted and shifted focus trying to figure out what exactly I was trying to look at. Then suddenly a tiny piece of what appeared to be algae moved and I noticed it was actually alive! It couldn’t have been longer than a centimetre or so and was pink with beautiful blue and yellow tentacles sticking out all over its worm-like body and head. What WAS that thing? And how in the world had the dive guide seen something so minuscule and hidden?

Now, I am the type of diver who can usually be found hovering in one place for minutes at a time treasure hunting with my mask a short distance from the reef or seafloor. Many people don’t know that the biodiversity in a square meter of coral reef is unmatched by any other ecosystem on the planet, a rule to which the Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar (Burma) is no exception. The region is filled with a cornucopia of colours, shapes and textures that if you take your time and look closely you can find some bizarre little rarities that can bring a tear to your eye.

What exactly is a nudibranch?

Today there are somewhere around 3000 documented species of these incredible molluscs that can range from a mere 4mm to a hefty 60cm. Nudibranchs are invertebrates that spend a certain stage of development with a shell. They will always shed this shell at some point before adulthood. All nudibranchs are members of the sea-slug family, however not all sea-slugs are nudibranchs.

Egg ribbon of Hexabranchus Sanguineus nudibranch, aka Spanish dancer

These “sea slugs” are hermaphroditic which means that each individual has both female and male reproductive organs on the right side of their body. They can lay up to 25,000 eggs at a time in a mucous ribbon-like formation that will take roughly a week to hatch.

Because they have both male and female sexual organs, a pair can inseminate each others so that you have two pregnancies instead of one. However nudis still need to find a mate. They cannot impregnate themselves!
Nudibranchs are carnivorous and love to eat sponge, hydroids, algae, coral, anemones and even other nudibranchs. They can be found mostly in shallow reefs in warm salt water, but there are some species that live in deeper or cold waters and some can even survive the lower salinity of brackish water. They are found in great abundance at any of the dive sites of the Mergui Archipelago in Burma.

What is so special about nudibranchs?

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.

Phyllidia coelestis

The Blue dragon only need to eat for the first few months of its life before they become self reliant!

Some nudibranchs that feed on the stinging cells of jellyfish or hydroids can actually recycle them and use them as weapons. Glaucus atlanticus or the Blue dragon nudi can be found floating near the surface and feeds on the nematocysts of the Portuguese man of war Jellyfish and similar species. It will eat the stinging cells and pass them harmlessly through their body where they can then be displayed on their skin or in appendages called cerata making them harmful to predators.

Some nudibranchs that eat sponge will also use the same chemicals that their prey use to defend themselves to make them taste foul to their own predators.
Some can also make their own chemicals (regardless of what they eat or where they live) to serve similar purposes or can even secrete an acidic mucous when disturbed.

Some nudibranchs will feed on plant cells and use them to create their own food sources. A particular group of sacoglossan sea slugs will eat certain algae found in soft corals and recycle their chloroplasts so they can create their own nutrients through photosynthesis. This means that once it has eaten enough it doesn't need to eat any longer. The algae in its body will use the sunlight to create enough nutrient for its host to survive.

Doriprismatica atromarginata nudi

One of the world’s most famous nudibranchs is the Spanish dancer or Hexabranchus sanguineus is also one of the world’s biggest growing up to 40cm long! These are nocturnal and can often be found during a night dive. If you are lucky you can even see one swimming in a mesmerising undulating movement. It is potently chemically defended and it advertises it with its bright red colour. They also often have small symbiotic emperor shrimp which ride along on their backs.

Hexabranchus sanguineus aka Spanish dancer

Emperor shrimp hitching a ride on a hexabranchus sanguineus

How do you identify a nudibranch?

Nudibranchs have complicated names which can be very daunting to someone just starting to learn about them. They often have common names which can be easier to remember but they can also cause confusion. For example, some people call the same nudi different names depending on where they dive and what the locals refer to them as. Sometimes a distinguishing feature that led people to give it a common name is not specific to that species leading different nudis to be called the same thing.
Using their scientific names is the best way to accurately identify nudibranchs even if it can be a bit of a mouthful. Taxonomy is the way we classify living things in biology and it is an intricate science. Basically speaking, plants and animals are divided into family trees that get more specific as you travel downwards eventually allowing you to name individuals.

4 main families of nudibranch

Instead of branchial plumes, Aeolid
nudibranchs are covered in appendages called cerata which increase surface area for gas exchange and also can be used to display ingested chemicals or stinging cells for defence.

There are 4 main Nudibranch families:
Doridoida, Aeolida, Dendronotida and Euarminida. The most common families are "Aeolids" and "Dorids" which each have specific identifiable features.

Dorids all have a distinguishable branchial plume on their back end which they use to breathe. Their mantles are often smoother and more regular shaped than Aeolids which are typically much spikier.

Anatomy of Dorid and Aeolid Nudibranchs

Understanding the difference between the different species is a great place to start but there are other things to consider when identifying a special slug you found on the reef. Looking at its body shape can be very helpful as well as colouration and any markings like stripes or polka dots. Also when in doubt there are many resources available to you like marine species identification books or public forums on social media.
Some of my favourites are ID Please (Marine Creature Identification) and Nudibranch Central on Facebook.

What kind of nudibranchs can we find in the Mergui Archipelago?

The marine life in the Mergui Archipelago is so diverse that it has something to offer to any diver. Macro lovers rejoice in Burma and especially those with an affinity for nudibranchs. Behold some of the mesmerizing little beauties that we have found on our cruises.