[See image gallery at www.liveaboard-thailand.asia] This beautiful rock offers spectacular diving experiences due to its richness in aquatic life, from Guitar Sharks all the way down to the little Sea Horses. Located some 20 kilometers to the southeast of the Surin Islands, Richelieu Rock can fulfill all your liveaboard diving dreams. This is by far the best dive site in these waters, including the rest of Thailand, though its reputation stretches even further to the entire globe. As a diver, you’re in for the sensation of a lifetime!
Richelieu Rock is covered with all kinds of thick layers of corals, so much so that in places its even hard to see the rock beneath them. As the limestone horse-shoe shaped pinnacle slopes abruptly down to the sandy bottom, the corals increase in size and colour formations. On the south side, the site slopes gently to deeper waters where the small caves created will give the more adventurous diver exciting swim-throughs. The center of the pinnacle provides beginners with shelter from any difficult conditions they have not yet been trained to manage.
Such difficulties may include currents, which can get quite strong as Richelieu Rock dive site is, for the most part, completely exposed. Nevertheless, the rich aquatic life and frequent, fascinating views of Whale Sharks and Manta Rays, bring live aboard divers back to this site time and time again.
[See image gallery at www.liveaboard-thailand.asia]
Richelieu Rock Dive Site Details
Recommended live aboard diver certification: Beginner
Maximum depth: 35 meters
Visibility: 20+
Temperature: 27+
Divesite marine life: around the dive site one finds many kinds of Snappers and Trevallies, Blue Powered Surgeon Fish, Sea Horses, Cheveron Barracudas, Turtles, and many types of Moray Eels such as the Shy Dragon or the Giant Yellow Edged Moray and the Zebra and Honeycomb Morays, as well as Guitar Sharks. Here you can find nearly all kinds and colours of coral reef fish, like Butterfly Fish, Angel Fish and Groupers.
More Outer Similan Island Dive Sites
- Koh Bon West Ridge
- Koh Tachai