Diving in Burma
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Diving the Mergui Archipelago and Burma Banks

The following is a trip report I wrote after visiting these magnificent dive sites over the Thai Lunar New Year in April 1998.

On April 11th, a total of 14 divers took off from Bangkok Airport for Ranong, where we were to meet the MV "Lazy Shark" the following day.

The Lazy Shark was (she sank in 1998) a 24 m long and 6 m wide motor vessel, equipped with a 350 HP Hinu Diesel engine, two 380 V-generators, two electro-compressors, 5.000 liter diesel tanks, 8.000 liter water-tanks, 30 12 liter aluminum INT tanks and a Nitrox-filling station.

Trip participants

We checked into the P.P. Hotel, more P than hotel, really, and on Robert's suggestion arranged to visit Victoria Point, or Kawtaung as the Burmese now call it, just across the river mouth in Burma.

3 hours into the trip, when Rob was trying for the 58th time to convince a Burmese Immigration official that he had been there 2 months ago without having to pay a $5 visa fee, most of the participants were beginning to wish that they had gone with Beth and Suzanne, who had set off for the Andaman Club's pool, piņa coladas and plush chairs.

That feeling only got stronger after we actually arrived in Kawtaung. A town where the temperature in the shade approaches 45 degrees, where maybe 2 rooms have air-conditioning, and whose main attraction - thoughtfully located at the highest and hottest spot on the entire island - is a statue of a general whose claim to fame is that he killed a lot of Thais, simply does not leave you begging for more...

Thankfully, we were able to whiz past Burmese Immigration on the way back, or they might have kept Robert. To make up for that, we also skipped Thai Immigration, on the boat driver's advice. He kindly suggested that getting out of the boat, negotiating a 200 meter wide mud flat and then standing in sweltering heat inside the Immigration shed, would be totally unnecessary when there was a perfectly nice Immigration office in Ranong itself.

The fact that, upon arrival in the "port", he refused to tell us where it was unless we gave him more money, caused our warm feelings for him to cool somewhat.

No matter, our driver knew where it was, and we were treated to a session in the nicest, coolest and friendliest Immigration office I have personally been inside in 10 years of living and travelling in Thailand.

Feeling acceptably clean after a 3-hour shower, most of us met in the lobby to partake of the local seafood cuisine at a restaurant recommended by the driver. Absent were the members of the freshly named group, "The Swamp Things", comprising Neil, Peter, Simon, Brian and (part-time) Laurent. The Things had gone off in search of entertainment that met their discerning criteria: Minimum intellect, maximum alcohol intake. They seemed to have found it, too, as we came upon the group in the main street of Ranong, where they were posing a hazard to road traffic. We somehow got past without fatalities, and the food was wonderful.

The following day saw the entire group waiting in the lobby after your average Thai up-country breakfast of eggs fried only a few hours earlier, and some very lightly fried, indescribable meat. After 2 hours' waiting, John Williams phoned to announce that the LS had arrived at a different pier from the one we thought we were going to leave from, and could we kindly take a cab there ? Yes, Sir.

At Jansom Thara Resort, we finally saw the boat, and after having loaded the bags, and taken off for Victoria Point (groan!), John gave us a briefing on what we could expect on the trip, including a lengthy discourse on the subtleties of shark identification. Potential encounters were gray reef, white-tip reef, black-tip reef, bull, gray nurse, tawny nurse, leopard, silver-tip, and whale sharks.

As a bonus, we were given the option to visit the Burma Banks, long closed to divers while the territory was being disputed. None of the participants had been to the Banks, but those who had at least read about this legend in Thai diving tried with all their might to persuade the others to agree to going. The Banks are a series of sea-mounts in the middle of the Indian Ocean, which rise from 3,000 meters to depths of 18-40 meters from the surface. The main attraction here has always been sharks, especially silver-tips and tawny nurses.

While all this was taking place, Wolfgang, the owner of the LS, was ashore getting diving permits and taking the mandatory Burmese guide onboard. Finally, everyone was onboard, and we took off around 14:00.

There would be time for only one dive that day, and we agreed to make it wherever it seemed to make sense along the way. That was a mistake. Before the dive, we quickly named the chosen dive site "No Name Point". Post-dive, the place changed name to "What's The Point". The visibility was 1 meter and the bottom, which was at 20 meters, was pure muck. Nothing of interest was seen (duh!).

Sunday dawned on the Burmese Island of North Twin, where the first two dives of the day were to be conducted. We jumped in at 08:00, expectations high.
North Twin is a pleasant site, mainly around big granite boulders clustered with soft coral in shades of maroon, purple, yellow and red, as well as the ever-present gorgonian seafans, which are absolutely enormous in the Mergui Archipelago. We dropped to the bottom at 28 meters, and started swimming into the mild current.

Almost immediately after our arrival, a large shark swam by, just at the edge of visibility, which was around 15 meters, it veered off as soon as we came into view, and identification was shaky. Could have been a black-tip, but it seemed quite a bit larger than black-tips usually get. Could have been a bull shark, too, or maybe a gray reef shark.

Gorgonian seafan at North Twin

We also came upon a very large green moray, and halfway into the dive we were visited by a marble ray easily a meter-and-a-bit across. Other divers who went in the opposite direction saw gray reef sharks and eagle rays. Everybody was so pumped for sharks that quite a few of us only noted peripherally that the general reef fish population was also very impressive.

Marble ray at North Twin

The 2nd dive on North Twin was at the same site. Almost immediately, we dropped on a leopard shark resting in the sand at 24 meters just below the boat, and spent a few minutes edging close to it. We got to within a meter and a half of it, when it decided to retreat to a corner a couple of meters away, where we left it in peace.

The remainder of the dive saw nothing big, but offered an opportunity to appreciate the really healthy soft coral growth and the plentiful reef fish. The reef population included parrotfish, butterflyfish, angelfish, clownfish, filefish, pufferfish, surgeonfish, lionfish, needlefish, trumpetfish, damsels, gobies, blennies, moorish idols, bannerfish, and a solitary barracuda.

Soft coral at South Twin

Some divers saw white-tip and black-tip reef sharks, and one divemaster an eagle ray. Coral growth and marine life here was similar to North Twin, and again we noted the huge gorgonian seafans, probably growing to this impressive size because of the relatively strong currents that are found here. Since the seafans reach into the current to strain nutrients from the water, strong currents with lots of nutrients encourage this spectacular growth.

We anchored in the bay at South Twin, where the night dive was to be conducted. For some reason, decent night diving sites are always rare. The really spectacular sites don't usually lend themselves to night diving, since they almost always feature deep water and potentially strong currents. This was an exception! We descended on the fringing reef and started swimming into a mild current at about 18 meters. Relatively quickly, we came up to about 15 meters, and some buddy teams decided to turn around and drift back with the current. I don't recall what other divers saw, but my logbook mentions lobsters, 3 species of moray eel swimming out in the open, lots of shrimp and other crustaceans, sleeping parrotfish and filefish, and the biggest loggerhead turtle I have ever seen, easily a meter and a half across, sleeping among the very healthy coral. The visibility was excellent, too.

Soft coral at night on South Twin

Overnight, we sailed to the Burma Banks, specifically Silvertip Bank, the closest to Mergui at 35 nautical miles' distance. The water was crystal clear, and you could clearly see the bottom some 20-25 metes down. At 06:00, I was hanging off the ladder at the back, only with mask and snorkel, observing the reef waking up. It didn't take more than a couple of minutes to spot first a nurse shark then a silvertip cruising along the bottom, and I was surrounded by surgeonfish and sweetlips as I hung there.

The first dive was at 08:00. This time, instead of buddy teams going off on their own, we descended in 2 groups, for several reasons. Groups are a bit safer with lots of sharks around, and since the sea mounts drop off at 40 meters to reach depths of 3,000 meters, close supervision is called for, especially since there can be down-currents at the edges, currents that will actually drag you deeper. Lastly, the Indian Ocean is not the place to get lost and drift away.

First silvertip arrives....

 We descended on the middle of the flat, and proceeded down to 30 meters, where the slope starts. Swimming along the slope, it didn't take more than 5 minutes before Marco the divemaster pointed into the big blue. The first silvertip had arrived...

It came in slowly, cautiously, keeping a distance of maybe 30 meters to the group. Circling the group, it became a little bolder, especially after it was joined by a fellow shark, and for the next 20 minutes, 3 sharks held the group mesmerized. Although the flat is actually beautiful in itself, with lots of coral and fish life, I doubt that many took the time to appreciate this. Even when a small leatherback turtle made an appearance, this encounter, usually enough to make a dive memorable in itself, was peripheral.

After about 30 minutes at depth, NDLs were rapidly approaching and so were the 50 bar marks on most peoples' gauges. Although most of us were probably at that time wishing we had purchased rebreathers, even the safety stop turned out to be memorable. Drifting along in a brisk current at 5 meters, across a beautiful reef flat in the middle of nowhere, with great visibility and sharks performing below, this safety stop beat many actual dives I have made in Thailand!

A peripheral turtle...

Circling, circling....

 Topside, adrenaline was running high, and the waiting time until the next dive seemed interminable. We finally got back in the water about 11:20 in the same groups, and did more or less an identical dive to the first one. It took a little longer for the sharks to arrive, but after 7 minutes they were there, and treated us to 30 minutes of circling.

For the 3rd dive of the day, the dive plan was different. The previous dives had been live-boat dives, but this time we were moored at the mooring line in the middle of Silvertip Bank. The plan was to descend to the mooring, spread out and wait for the sharks. We knew they were there, because some of us had observed them while snorkeling during the surface interval.

So we descended and spread out in a loose circle maybe 100 meters in diameter. The bottom here was at only 18 meters, sensible for the 3rd dive of the day, and great for bottom time, .

This dive hold the indisputable title as my best dive ever! Sitting on the outer edge of the circle, by myself, I was passed again and again, with the silvertips coming as close as 2-3 meters in their fly-byes. If a manta ray had been performing barrel rolls over my head, I doubt that I'd have been interested. I shot picture after picture, totally oblivious to anything but me and the sharks. Strangely, it was a very relaxed experience, and I surfaced after 40 minutes with 90 bar left in the tank.

Passing again and again, the silvertips never showed aggression.

Robert with shark (shark in the foreground)

Everyone was strangely quiet for a while after getting back on the boat. Speaking for myself, I think I have finally found the answer to why I dive, and I suspect many people felt the same.

The last dive on Silvertip Bank started at 17:30, with a dive plan identical to the previous dive. Although the silvertips were there as soon as we got to the bottom, for some reason they only hung around for about 10 minutes, then vanished, not to be seen again during the dive. After about 10 minutes of waiting for them to return, we swam off in buddy teams and explored the reef until it was time to ascend. Who knows where the sharks went ? Maybe they went off to feed (is was dusk after all), maybe they just got tired, or maybe they realized that we weren't going to feed them (a practice that used to take place here a few years back). I think we all missed them, and the dive was not quite the same.

Unidentified eel on Silvertip Bank

We left the Banks after the last buddy team was back. We had been blessed with flat seas, but that can change quickly out there, so we beat feet for the Archipelago again, specifically an island called Western Rocky, where we woke up Wednesday morning, ready for the last 2 dives of the trip.

Concentrate on the close things when visibility drops...

Visibility was awful, no more than 3 meters. While this precluded watching shark parades (and there are a lot of sharks here), it did make people concentrate on the reef and rock itself. In my opinion, the quality of the dive site equals Richelieu Rock in Surin, and improved visibility could see it overtake RR. The gorgonian seafans are absolutely enormous here, larger than most I've seen in the Similans, and the rock is dotted with bearded scorpionfish of all colors.

Annoyed fimbriated moray on Western Rocky

 We saw very large marble ray in the very beginning of the dive, and large schools of jacks as well. Some saw sharks. On the safety stop, we even saw 2 yellow-headed morays, so rare elsewhere. The dive site is famous for gray reef sharks and rays, as well as large nurse sharks and sometimes even bull sharks.

The last dive of the trip was at 09:45. By this time, the number of divers had diminished, as some had to sit this one out due to flying constraints, and some were just dived out. A group of 6 divers, led by John Williams, decided to locate and penetrate a cave that starts in 21 meters and proceeds all the way through the island. This cave is as safe as a cave is ever going to get, in that it has one entrance and 2 exits right next to each other. There are no branches, and the swim from one end to the other can be done in under a minute if necessary.

Unfortunately, upon arrival at the bottom we found that there was quite a current, and we had a long, hard swim against it before we finally reached the cave entrance. Getting inside, sheltered from the current, the first thing you notice is that the roof of the cave is absolutely saturated with lobsters! About 5 meters inside, we encountered the reason for this dive: A 3.5 meter nurse shark resting on the bottom. We knew that this cave was a nurse shark hangout, and we were not disappointed. You could almost see the shark

3 Nurse sharks in cave at Western Rocky

counting divers, and deciding that he wanted none of that, so he retreated back into the cave, and we followed. At the very back of the cave, blocking the exit, were 2 more nurse sharks, equally long. Impressive animals, and so gentle.

At this point, a bit of commotion broke out. Laurent was trying to pass the sharks and squeeze out the exit. Mark was having buoyancy problems and found himself standing on a shark. Neil was lying next to one without knowing it, as he was busy watching the needle on his pressure gauge returning to the red. Simon was being kicked around by everybody else, and I refused to move from my spot on the bottom, where I was lying trying to take pictures and protect my camera at the same time. Neil shoved his pressure gauge in my face, and we exited the cave the way we came in. Seeing us exiting, the rest of the group followed quickly and everybody got to the surface without problems.

At no point was there any real danger, but it could have been more comfortable. I think everyone learned some lesson, and that alone made the dive worthwhile.

Of course, a couple of hours after the dive, the cave had shrunk to the size of your average Thai maid's quarters, the sharks had turned into tiger sharks, and the 3 meter measurement had turned into a between-the-eyes measurement rather that total body length. Now, 2 days after the dive, we have 2 divers out-of-air, Laurent ditching his BCD, John with his leg halfway down the mouth of the shark, which by now is about 7 meters long, and I am getting very tired of fending off all the journalists that keep calling to get the inside scoop. Soon, we'll have Clinton denying that he ever had sex with "that" shark...

We had an uneventful 8-hour ride back to Ranong, where, after some waiting time, the bus finally showed up to take us back to Bangkok. We had feared the worst, traffic-wise, but the ride took 8 hours and a bit, and we were dropped off in front of the US embassy at 04:30 Thursday morning.

This was the last trip of the season to the Andaman Sea, as the monsoon is changing. Until November, we are looking at good old Pattaya, Koh Tao and possibly overseas destinations. Me, I'm going back to Silvertip Bank next year. See you there!