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Big Blue Blog

Tuesday 2nd February 2010
Apologies for the delay in updating, what with back-to-back liveaboards on MV Pawara and more day trips on the speedboats out to the Similan islands and Richelieu Rock than you can blow bubbles at, things have been crazily busy West-side!
Koh Bon and Koh Tachai (2 of the islands North of the Similans) have been proving immensely popular recently – not only are they beautiful dive sites, the visibility’s been great, with flat seas making the journey time to Koh Bon less than an hour - our favourite ocean residents are back!

The manta rays are here and are as playful as ever, up to 5 metres big, these gentle giants make for some fantastic diving experiences, either cruising over the coral reef at Koh Bon or barrel rolling and diving around and over the rocks at Tachai, they’re certainly a sight to behold – lucky fundivers the day before yesterday on a daytrip with one dive at each site and mantas at each too!
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Big Blue just certified 2 of our youngest (and most energetic!) students ever! Joep and Sjoera passed their Open Water course making 4 amazing dives in the Similans.
Rick has already offered them jobs when they become instructors as these guys speak 4 languages each!
Also Ralph got his Bubblemaker certificate at the same time – a whole family of scuba divers J Hope to see you soon guys – come back next year for your Advanced Course!

Outside of our Khao Lak bubble, the rest of the world is realising more and more what a fragile ecosystem coral reefs are.
According to a new study reported in the journal ‘Science’, coral reefs give rise to many more new species that other tropical marine habitats – new species originate 50% faster in the reefs than in other habitats.
Coral reefs are often compared to rainforests in terms of their biodiversity as they give shelter to such a huge number of different marine species, and the destruction of this ecosystem could be devastating to the planet. The planet is losing 2% of its reefs each year, mainly due to human activity, and we need to act now to preserve the coral reefs before it’s to late. Save our seas!

Back to Khao Lak, and the last few Pawara trips have also been very successful, lots of mantas, leopard sharks, some white tips at Elephant Head Rock and Koh Bon plus the usual array of weird and wonderful macro life – seahorses, nudibranchs and ghost pipefish aplenty We’ve had a fantastic mix of people on the boats, newer divers and seasoned divers, plus a multitude of different nationalities.

So many people experiencing amazing diving, but adding that personal touch to their trip as well – we’ve had customers celebrating their 100th, 200th and 300th dives,taking their advanced open water courses, becoming enriched air divers, and celebrating some birthdays on the liveaboard.

We’ve had honeymooners on board, and then last trip even had an underwater proposal – congratulations to Erica and Christian who popped the question underwater and got engaged in style in the Similans! Who wants to get married on the Pawara?!

Last but not least, felt I should mention our techie friends too. The technical diving crew from Koh Tao came across as part of their round-Thailand trip exploring the depths, caves and shipwrecks of the ocean, and headed out on the daytrips to Richelieu and the Similans, plus a trip out on the liveaboard to show us recreational divers what we’re missing out on. Shame they ruined their macho image by being as excited by the manta rays as we were ☺
Click here to read past updates.
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