Login
Destinations Burma Mergui Archipelago & Burma Banks
| Mergui Archipelago & Burma Banks |
|
|
|
 The Mergui Archipelago is situated close to the main land while the submerged mountaintops of the Burma Banks can be found far off shore.However, diving the Mergui Archipelago is certainly not for everyone. The Mergui Archipelago and especially the Burma Banks offer some exciting and stimulating open-ocean diving. The currents can be very strong out here and only experienced divers should dive around here. The Currents can be so tricky here, that they sometimes changing in direction 90º to 180º very quickly-and very fast. It is common to drift over one kilometer on certain dives.  The main attraction for divers to travel this far out is the increased possibility of seeing the big stuff. Altogether at least nine species of sharks have been seen here. The common leopard and white tips reefs sharks can be regularly found, but the real stars of the banks are the tawny nurse sharks and the impressive Silver-tips that accompany you on your dives each more than three meters in length are more than enough reason by its self for visiting the banks. The nurse sharks are curious and unafraid; they sometimes swim right up to you. While the extremely solid and powerful Silver-tips patrol the reefs with grace and confidence. More dependable, however, is the remarkable variety of smaller fish and amazing critters, including some of which are rarely encountered in Thai waters, like harlequin shrimp and ghost pipefish. Add this to the appeal of diving where few people have been before and you have got all the ingredients for an exclusive diving destination. The diving here has tremendous potential, yet serious environmental problems have threatened the reefs. You are likely to hear bombs go off at least once during your trip and the Mergui sites do show evidence of dynamite - fishing. Despite the environmental threats, the diving in the Mergui Archipelago and banks is still excellent. It is too early to say what the long-term prospects are, but hopefully with the increasing interest in eco-tourism, will provide enough encouragement for the authorities to take action and protect the unique reefs and abundant marine life before it’s too late. Interested in Visiting Burma? Have a look at the more detailed descriptions of the different itiniairies from the liveaboards visiting Burma:
4 days Burma with the Mare West 6 days Burma with the Mare West 10 days Burma with the Sai Mai
Liveaboards visiting the Mergui Archipelago and Burma Banks: SY Siren - MV JAZZ - MV Mare West - MV Sai Mai |
Even though it’s just an imaginary line that divides the Thai waters above the Surin Islands from Myanmar’s Mergui Archipelago the restriction of the Burmese government makes it nearly impossible to visit this extraordinary group of Islands. The islands are similar to their Thai counterparts with rocky, impressive limestone and granite landscape, but with one obvious difference: their unspoiled terrestrial scenery.
2 days Burma with the Mare West 
