Black Rock in a week: Burma diving liveaboard Day One Departure from Ranong with a full cruise with 12 Divers was setting sail for Mergui again with a lovely dinner at sunset...  Day Two (High Rock and Exploration) First destination was High Rock to where the group decided to claim the reef back as a dive site and for the marine life. A huge fishing net was covering the reef since November. Since we had a larger staff crew of 5 instructors and Dive masters on board we decided to claim the reef back with an early dive for the staff before bringing the guests to enjoy their morning dive. With the help of a lift bag, we managed to remove half of the ghost net from the reef and recover it to the surface and onboard the MV Thai Sea. The adventure continued with 2 exploration dives. We were very exited with our new discovery. Schools of travellies, tunas and and yellow finned barracudas circling our new dive site that the group decided to name “Name needed".  Day Three (North Twin) Crystal clear waters awaited us for the morning dive at “North Twin Pinnacle”. Schools of Barracudas at the decent and Tunas hunting in the blue is what makes this dive site so special.  Day Four (Black Rock) Black Rock never disappoints. On our 4 dives here we had Manta interaction with at least 3 Mantas, Schools of Barracudas as well as Tunas. The also enjoyed seeing the presence of sea snakes and Turtles. What else can you wish for?  Day Five (Shark Cave, Square Rock & Submarine) There is a reason why this place is one of the more famous dive sites in Megui Archipelago . Bendstick Pipefish, Seahorses, Squid, Cuttle Fish, Marble Rays and 2 Ghostpipefish. A lot of tick marks in the dive logs! ;)  Day Six (Western Rocky and Dendros Peak) 30m visibility at Western Rocky and the cuddle fish mating was underway with multiple love birds scattered around the rock. 2 Harlequin Shrimps and 10 frogfish were the highlights here. And of course the swimm through the western rocky cave.  Day Seven (Seahorse City) New record for our seahorse spotters. We counted 11 smiling seahorses at Seahorse City. Great closing of an amazing cruise with amazing people.  Congratulations to Karsten who became a fully certified Dive Master this week, to two new advanced divers Geraldine & Didier, to Kalle who did his rescue and deep diver onboard and to Julien & James for successfully completing the deep dive specialty! Well done!!! A big thank you to Jim for his lovely video of the trip Black Rock, South Twin, Shark Cave, North Twin, Western Rocky, Seafan Forest...
7 days/6 nights, 21 dives 30 fun facts about marine life you won’t even believe!The vastness of the ocean is still in great part a mystery to us. Even the species that we know, continue to surprise us with their behavior. Check out these shocking facts about marine critters that you won’t believe...  8 days cruise, undiscovered Mergui Archipelago We are back from the first 8 days cruise to Mergui of the season, going up north all the way to Black Rock. Another great trip!  This cruise was under the tag of photography, not less than 7 cameras for 12 divers, and the result was some beautiful shots that you can admire on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/the.smiling.seahorse  In addition of the frenchies photographers, Fred, Flore, Sophie and Nono, we had on board a lovely couple, Maurizio and Gabriella, who decided to come on this 8 days trip without any diving experience except one discover scuba diving few years ago. At the end of the cruise they were delighted by their daring decision, and they are going back home with not only an open water course diploma, they are now advanced open water and enriched air nitrox divers with more than 20 dives each ! Congratulations for your performance ! And to be able to find some time to relax even with this busy program ;-)  Another happy New this week: we spotted the first ghost pipe fish of the season, a baby white one, not more than 2cm long! but also the first Harlequin shrimps of the season (2 pairs!) I love those creatures and so glad they are usually quite territorial so we should find them on the next dive trips! yeah!  You can take a look on the Facebook album and admire the different cute fishes and tiny creatures. We had the chance to assist to a pygmy squid eating a shrimp, morray eel having a feast of glassfishes at night, some cuttlefishes mating, not less than 9 frogfishes, 2 stone fishes sleeping in the top of the sea fan forest pinnacle, turtle, rays and a dozen of smiling seahorses as usual :-) Stay connected for our next adventures and keep an eye on the Facebook page if you want to see more pictures of the trip. All the team wish you a wonderful month of December ! Black Rock, South Twin, Shark Cave, North Twin, Macleod Island, Western Rocky, Seafan Forrest...
8 days/7 nights, 25 dives Manta festival in MyanmarA short video of our mantas encounter in Black rock... a truly magical dive! 20 mantas gliding around us from all part on Black Rock, a dive site in the middle of the ocean, a treasure of the andaman sea! Arguably one of the best experiences a diver could ever have is to dive with giant oceanic manta rays. We are lucky to see them regularly during our cruises in Mergui Archipelago, Myanmar and compiled a list of the questions we most often answer about these gentle giants. Manta rays are generally found in temperate, tropical and subtropical waters above 68 °F (20 °C) across the planet. They are a migratory species and some that have been tagged by scientists were known to travel as far as 1,000 km and as deep as 1,000m. Giant Oceanic Manta Ray: FAQ, factsheet and photos Texture diving BurmaAlready half of the season gone, and the excitment of the beginning is far from worn out ! Every dive holds so much promises, and keeps them too ! It feels like time is running way too fast, but we're enjoying every minute of it...  Burma is home to both the rare frogfish...  ... and the classic-but-cute clownfish ! This past week gave us another sample of what Burma has to offer : strong tidal currents bringing in an amazing quantity of fish, walls covered in soft corals in every color, tiny creatures never met anywhere else, magic night dives with sparkling plankton... And a great group onboard, including two brave students who successfully completed their Advanced Open Water ! Congratulations Sylvain and Paul !  Anight dive beauty : the spanish dancer...  ... and a night dive tiny : the basketstar shrimp. The recently discovered dive sites are holding up to their promises. We keep going back, and we marvel everytime at the beauty of those places ! No wonder they got everybody's stamp of approval, and are officially part of the new itineraries for the next season...  The wondering look of a juvenile angelfish. Because of course, we can't help but look just a little bit further. And what's awaiting us next year is higly exciting. The new itineraries are already online, and open to bookings. Check it out there, and come and join us for the next adventures ! |
The Smiling Seahorse Diving BlogA blog about our diving adventures in Burma and Thailand. Diving trip reports, guest reviews, fishy stories, wildlife fun facts and much more...
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AuthorsThe Smiling Seahorse has been running dive cruises from Ranong since 2012.
Our team of instructors are reporting with a short blogpost after every trip. Camille, Franck and some guest writers also contribute during the off season writing on various topics. Keep tuned for more fishy stories :) 
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See also...- About Myanmar liveaboards
- Best Burma dive sites - Marine life in Andaman Sea - The Mergui Archipelago - Best dive site in Thailand |
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