There's really nothing too deep here, the absolute bottom is 28 — 30 meters with nice soft
corals in the shallower areas too.
Not exact matches
However, some
areas of the
shallow water
corals across the three islands have been damaged because of
coral heatstroke, land - based sewage, disease, the rise
in sea level, over-fishing, and physical damage.
These
areas of the
coral head are dead and silted
in, probably due to the
shallow water covering them which allows more sunlight and thus more colonization by algae.
The diving is pretty nice, sloping reefs with healthy soft on the deeper
areas and hard
corals bommies
in the
shallows.
Hard
corals and feather stars abound
in the
shallower areas, while soft
corals and massive sea fans inhabit the deeper reaches.
Every variety of stony
coral known to live
in shallow water can be photographed
in this one
area.
In the
shallow areas be sure to keep your eyes open for peacock flounders, octopus, needlefish and turtles or drop down a little deeper over dense
coral growth to see puffers, moray eels, parrot fish, lobsters, and even sea horses.
Entering the Rum Point
area there are several hidden beaches underneath the bluff that hold pristine
coral formations
in shallow waters.
Koh Si - This site competes with Koh Yawasam for the best snorkelling
area in Ao Nang, with 2 large
shallow coral covered plateaus on either side of the island.
Many colourful fish dance along the
coral formations and stingrays and eagle rays feed along the sand flats
in the
shallow areas.
Diving the sheltered
area of the reef
in order to avoid the stronger currents of this early morning, the guests were amazed by the extensive hard
coral garden that cover the
shallow part of this dive site.
This has to be one of the best dive sites
in Asia for open water students or those who just like to dive
in easy conditions a see the stuff of the underwater movies... from two
shallow entry points on sandy bottoms the surrounding
area is covered
in hard
coral,, giant table
corals, staghorn
coral, cabbage
coral ans many many many other hard
coral species thrive here, around twenty five bommies rise to about 5m which attract colorful fish galore, you can reach a depth of about 20m, but the best stuff is between 5 and 12m making it a perfect second or third dive of the day.
The first dive was
in Melissa s Garden, famous for its extensive hard
coral garden distributed around the
shallow plateau
area and hosting a lot of smaller fishes that use for shelter.
Reef builders need bright sunlight to live, so these
coral reefs are most often found
in areas of clear,
shallow water with a depth of between 100 to 450 feet.
Towards the end our divers send most of their times
in the
shallow sheltered
area looking for critters among the abundant soft
coral.
The dive starts
in a
shallow area of 3 to 8 m
in a wonderful
coral garden.
However, there are also sheltered
areas in in the
shallows where you can also snorkel amongst beautiful unspoiled
coral gardens.
While the global picture of
corals is gloomy
in both the
shallow and deep seas, the overall evidence is strong that marine protected
areas protect not only
corals, but the associated biological diversity that they support — fishes, invertebrates, marine mammals, seabirds, and more.