20 Mobula Rays

in Burma!

Liveaboard trip 09/01 – 18/02 2008

Thailand - Burma Dive Safari

Mermaid I

OK, to be perfectly honest, we only counted 19, but I’m sure there was another one or two in the back that we didn’t see...

Anyway, despite all the sharks, frogfish, seahorses and ghost pipefish, I think what will stay with us most from this trip, is this school of Mobula Rays we were lucky enough to come across at Tower Rock, way up north in the Mergui Archipelago!

The first day of diving, we had several Leopard sharks at Koh Bon and Koh Tachai as well as frogfish and beautiful nudibranchs. The nightdive surprised us with both a big Pleurobranchus and a Spanish Dancer.

Richelieu Rock continued to live up to its reputation, with Tigertail seahorses, Ghost pipefish and a pair of Harlequin shrimps. Plus, of course, the usual selection of Big-eye Trevallies, Barracudas and Yellow snappers. We even had a quick visit of a Mobula ray!

For unknown reasons, the moray eels at Three Islets, like to hang out together, up to six of them in the same hole. Quite often they are also from different species. For example, we had five White-eyed morays sharing a place with a Spotface and a Zebra moray. And the nightdives here are absolutely wild, with hunting eels, octopus and huge barracudas!

At Black Rock, a waypoint for pelagics, we encountered three Eagle rays, a few Whitetip sharks and three massive Marble rays, with their own entourage of 25 or so cobias.

We saw many frogfish on this trip, including a gorgeous red specimen at South Twin, four white ones at Western Rocky and a young black Painted frogfish the last day in Similans.

Beautiful weather the entire nine days, made for an enjoyable Burma Safari!

PJ Widestrand

Video-Pro
Mermaid I

Liveaboard diving Thailand, Myanmar, Bali - Komodo and the Andaman Islands.