This is living blue
Four days on the water. Multiple dives daily. Sleeping under stars. This is what we do – and why we protect it.
When the ocean becomes your home
When you spend this much time in the ocean – really in it, not just passing through – something changes.
The reef stops being a backdrop and starts being a place you know.
You recognise the turtles. You notice when something’s missing.
You start caring in a way that doesn’t feel like effort.
We’re Big Blue Diving Khao Lak – over twenty years of liveaboards and day trips in the Similan and Surin Islands, and a genuine commitment to protect the water we call home.
Our Living Blue Projects - and COunting
Sea Turtle Conservation & Research
236
verified turtle sightings
submitted to Andaman Turtle Watch – more than any other dive centre.
54
unique individual turtles
identified and documented
44
of the 126 named turtles
in the entire database named by Big Blue divers
The details tell an even more specific story:
168
recapture submissions
the repeat sightings that carry the greatest scientific
105
recorded feeding behaviours
contributing to critical knowledge gaps in regional turtle ecology
32
trained citizen scientists contributing data
across the Big Blue team – from dive guides and customers to boat crew and dinghy drivers.
Sam Hunt
#1 individual citizen scientist 71 sightings, 17 turtles named, 31 unique individuals recorded
We also launched the Andaman Sea’s first dedicated turtle citizen science and conservation liveaboards – two expeditions with 42 divers, combining our normal dive standards with sea turtle ecology workshops, photo-ID training, and hands-on citizen science. More planned for 2026–2027.
Our Resident Marine Biologist Eve Pilmore, founder of Andaman Turtle Watch, works closely with Big Blue as our lead conservation scientist. Andaman Turtle Watch is an open programme – multiple dive centres contribute, and we’re proud to be its leading partner without making it exclusive. Good science needs more eyes in the water, not fewer.
New for the 2026 – 2027 season, we’ve developed an exclusive range of SSI Turtle Ecology courses and packages that you won’t find anywhere else. Created around the work of Andaman Turtle Watch, they blend internationally recognised SSI certification with real research, real citizen science, and real conservation happening in the Andaman Sea today.
Turtle Conservation Trips
TRIP:
ROUTE:
Similans – Surin – Richelieu Rock
DIVES:
DEPARTS:
RETURNS:
BOOK THIS TRIP
TRIP:
DEPARTS:
RETURNS:
BOOK THIS TRIP
TRIP:
ROUTE:
Similans – Surin – Richelieu Rock
DIVES:
DEPARTS:
RETURNS:
BOOK THIS TRIP
TRIP:
DEPARTS:
RETURNS:
BOOK THIS TRIP
TRIP:
ROUTE:
Similans – Surin – Richelieu Rock
DIVES:
DEPARTS:
RETURNS:
BOOK THIS TRIP
TRIP:
DEPARTS:
RETURNS:
BOOK THIS TRIP
Teaching the Next Generation
One of Living Blue’s core beliefs is that conservation starts with education. We love teaching people to dive. We’ve always believed that a great dive instructor doesn’t just teach skills – they pass on a lifelong relationship with the ocean.
Last season, we took that idea much further.
Working alongside World Volunteering, we designed and delivered a bespoke ocean education programme for more than 150 international students – combining marine biology, sea turtle conservation, and the SSI Snorkel Diver programme. A further 50 students completed scuba diving certifications alongside their Turtle Ecology training, developing not only new skills but a deeper understanding of the marine ecosystems they were exploring.
Built from the ground up by Big Blue, our Resident Marine Biologist Eve Pilmore, and the World Volunteering team, the programme exceeded expectations from day one. Its success has already led to an expanded return – 400 students are expected to join us next season, which tells you everything about the demand for meaningful, conservation-led ocean education.
Our ocean education goes beyond scuba diving. It’s about painting a bigger picture – helping students understand why our oceans matter before giving them the chance to explore them. Every programme is tailored to the group: their age, interests, curriculum, and learning objectives. Sessions can combine snorkelling, scuba diving, Turtle Ecology certification, visits to local conservation projects, hands-on marine science, and time with working conservation practitioners.
This is Living Blue at its most complete: professional dive training, marine biology education, and conservation awareness – all delivered together to the people who are going to inherit the ocean.
We’ll soon be publishing example itineraries and education packages, but we’d always rather build something specifically for your students than ask them to fit into a standard schedule.
Looking After Our Own
Living Blue isn’t just about the ocean.
It’s about doing things properly – and that includes how we treat the people who make our operation work.
In the Thai dive industry, it’s common practice for migrant Burmese workers to fill tanks, manage equipment, and handle gas blending – jobs they do brilliantly, often for years, without any formal certification. The existing gas blender qualification is complex, technically demanding, and practically impossible to access for most of these workers. The result is a quiet but serious problem: skilled, experienced people doing safety-critical work without recognition or protection. And in the event of an incident, they become the easiest target.
We think that’s wrong. And we’re working to fix it.
Together with our manager Steve Boot and in discussion with SSI, we’re developing a simplified, practical certification pathway focused specifically on what these workers actually do – the relevant parts of gas blending for their real job, clearly taught, properly assessed, and formally recognised.
It’s in progress. There’s red tape. These things take time. But SSI are interested, and we’re not letting it go.
Our Burmese tank team are some of the most dedicated, capable people we’ve ever worked with.
They deserve proper recognition and legal protection. Getting this right matters to us as much as the turtle data.
Manta Ray Research & Future Expeditions
Before the turtles, there were mantas.
Members of our team have spent over twenty years diving with manta rays across the Indo-Pacific – contributing to citizen science through the Manta Matcher database and working directly with the Marine Megafauna Foundation and Dr Andrea Marshall, one of the world’s leading authorities on manta ray biology and behaviour. It’s a long, personal, hands-on history with one of the ocean’s most extraordinary animals.
Right now, mantas aren’t our main focus – the turtles and the school programme are taking centre stage, and rightly so. But mantas haven’t gone anywhere, and neither has our interest in them.
We’re exploring dedicated manta research trips and SSI Manta Ecology Specialty certifications.
Watch this space.
We Care About Sharks
Sharks matter. They’re among the most misunderstood, most threatened, and most important animals in the marine ecosystem – and across the Andaman Sea, they face real and ongoing pressure.
We support conservation efforts aimed at protecting sharks wherever we can. We follow responsible encounter guidelines on every dive, we brief our guests on respectful behaviour, and we back organisations working on shark protection in the region.
We won’t make specific claims about projects we can’t fully stand behind. What we will say is this: if you dive with us in the Similan Islands, sharks are part of what we’re protecting. Reef sharks, whitetips, occasional leopards – they’re here, and they should stay here.
What's Next for Living Blue
We’re a small team and we’re honest about where things are. Here’s what’s in motion:
- 2026–2027 Turtle Conservation Liveaboards - more departures, more science, more divers contributing to meaningful research
- SSI Turtle Ecology Courses & Packages - launching exclusive conservation-led experiences built around real research and citizen science in the Andaman Sea
- Ocean Education Programmes - expanding bespoke conservation-led education for schools, colleges, and universities
- Citizen Science - making it easier than ever for divers to contribute meaningful data to active marine conservation projects
- SSI Manta Ecology Specialty - getting this certified and available to our divers
- The Tank Team Certification - in progress, in discussion with SSI, not giving up on it
- Deeper collaboration with Similan and Surin National Parks - building on the pilot report submitted at the end of the 2024–25 season
- More from Living Blue - the sub-pages are growing, the database is live, the gallery is expanding
Living Blue
No greenwashing. No corporate conservation speak. Just a small team doing real things that matter, in the water we call home.
💙 Why We Do This
We didn’t set out to become a conservation organisation. We set out to run great dive trips and teach people to dive well. Living Blue grew from that – naturally, honestly, without a grand plan.
We’re ocean people. We spend more time underwater than most people spend outdoors. We see the reef change season by season, recognise the turtles we meet, and notice when something’s different. We know when the water is clear, the fish are thriving, and the current is just right.
That’s why we do this. Not because it looks good. Because it matters to us – and because we’re in a position to make a difference.
Shell Yeah. 🐢
Ready to Live Blue?
Join our community of ocean-obsessed divers making a real difference through meaningful conservation
