| Thailand & Burma -- Part 2 | ||
| by NLAVD | ||
| Date: 2002-06-21 | ||
| Location: Other | ||
Here is the second part of my story about diving in Thailand and Burma in April, 2002. Again, this is quite photo intense so be patient with the download. And if the formatting is a little flaky, I'll do what I can. | ||
| If
you
ended
up
here
first,
Click
here
for
part
1. Black Rock is quite simply, a rock in the middle of nowhere...reeaaallly in the middle of nowhere. It's a common location for mantas, in fact, there supposedly had been sightings here on every recent trip. Sadly they were gone, but the diving here was great nonetheless. In general you can expect currents here strong enough to limit your diving to one side of the rock. This makes for a dive site on the smallish side but as I mentioned above, this wasn't much of a limit. The density of life here is almost indescribable. Scorpionfish were common enough to make you wave your hand over a rock you plan to grab (to fight the current), giant morays, fimbriated morays, and white-eyed eels were seen on almost every dive, octopi, anemone crabs, porcelain crabs, hermit crabs...if I knew all the names I could go on for pages. On one mid-day dive, I followed Alain in hopes of finding a zebra shark to photograph. "Following" is a bit of a misnomer, I actually chased him at nearly my top finning speed. I not only found my self at 130' with decompression obligations, I got there at a full sprint...not good. We didn't see a zebra shark but we did get a glimpse of a good sized shark (some said white tip...I'm not sure). And the prize sighting, a bowmouth guitarfish, was circling about 4' over a sand patch. I truly had no idea what I was watching, it was about 5-6 feet long, looked sort of like a ray but swam with its tail like a shark...odd animal. No photos unfortunately.
Another prize sighting on this site was a McCosker's dwarf wrasse (aka "McCosker's Flasher"). I kept catching a glimpse of what looked to be a beautiful little wrasse, about 2" long but it would dart from one area to another acting like it was trying to defend each spot when it got there. The next morning we awoke back at Three Stooges. We dove this site one more time in pursuit of sharks or ghost pipefish (depending on where we went). Doc, Mark and I decided to go for the big guys but they weren't home. The dive was nonetheless beautiful and we got to see a school of young squid in the open water. As we proceeded around the corner of the island, the current brought us to a screaming halt. It was likely the strongest of the trip. Quite fun to hang in it on the corner, but otherwise pretty limiting.
The
island's
shore
near
our
entry
dropped
very
steeply
into
the
water
giving
us
the
impression
that
it
would
get
fairly
deep
quickly.
I
donned
my
mask
and
rolled
back
from
the
Zodiac.
CLANG!
I
was
in
two
feet
of
water
with
a
solid
rock
bottom!
I
came
up
just
in
time
to
see
Mark
do
the
same.
We
checked
that
nothing
and
no
one
was
hurt
and
told
the
Zodiac
crew
to
tow
us
to
deeper
water.
As
we
were
dragged
through
the
water
we
watched
the
bottom
until
we
began
to
see
staghorn
coral
in
amazing
quantities.
We
let
go
of
the
boat
in
only
about
7
feet
of
water
and
began
our
dive.
The
pristine
coral
continued
down
a
long
sloping
bottom
until
we
got
to
about
35'
where
it
began
to
turn
to
sand
and
other
types
of
coral.
Turning
our
lights
back
to
the
embankment,
we
realized
we
were
beside
a
stand
of
staghorn
that
extended
as
far
as
we
could
see.
We
swam
along
where
the
sand
met
the
coral
for
hundreds
of
feet
and
the
health
of
the
coral
never
diminished.
I
turned
to
see
Mark
stopped
in
the
sand
with
his
light
off.
When
I
approached,
he
signaled
to
turn
my
light
off.
I
watched
the
bioluminescence
for
a
few
minutes
and
then
I
realized
why
he
wanted
the
lights
off...lightning!
With
every
strike
from
the
storm
above,
a
hundred
foot
radius
of
pristine
coral
was
lit
just
long
enough
to
print
it
permanently
in
our
minds.
We
then
could
see
that
the
reef
was
also
made
up
of
huge
multi-level
mushroom
corals,
table
corals,
maze
corals
and
others
I
couldn't
begin
to
identify.
As
memorable
as
this
dive
was,
it's
almost
sad
to
realize
that
I
may
never
see
a
field
of
coral
this
healthy
again...even
if
I
come
back
to
this
site. This
dive
wasn't
without
its
critters.
We
were
constantly
in
the
company
of
crabs
of
various
types,
lobsters,
shrimps,
crinoids
(walking
about,
no
less),
and
the
odd
nocturnal
fish.
Two
different
hermit
crabs
had
small
anemones
attached
to
their
shells
for
camouflage.
Fascinating!
This
is
the
type
of
dive
that
you
could
never
forget.
The last dive at this site was another search for zebra (leopard) sharks. I ventured off on my own, sort of chasing Alain but he was long gone the first time I stopped for a photo. I ended up finding nothing of real interest. When I got back to the surface, I was greeted by Doc's stories of not one but two zebra sharks. Note to self: stick with Doc in the future. Next up--the remainder of the diving. Click here for part 3 | ||
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