Diving Koh Bon – Similan Islands | M/V Scuba Explorer Luxury Liveaboard

Diving Koh Bon – Similan Islands

Diving Koh Bon – Similan Islands

This Island offers a few different dive sites, the most impressive and most dived is the Koh Bon West ridge, this is a known Manta Ray cleaning station and the main reason people want to do this dive. The ridge comes down from the island under the water to depths of 40m and is covered in table corals, soft corals and plate coral. The visibility here is normally 20/30m but on a good day can go to 40+m and is simply stunning.

You tend to descend near the wall on the South side of the island where current is lax and swim along to the ridge, taking in many sites as you go, schools of Yellow Back Fusilier, Big Eyed Snapper, Oriental Sweetlips, the fish life here is extremely diverse and there is plenty to see. Always make sure you keep a look out into the blue to catch a glimpse of the Manta Rays swimming magically past you. At times you can have up to 5 Manta Rays playfully gliding around the divers as they hang in the water, no really this happens a lot, these beautiful creatures put on an amazing show some days for us, even the mythical rarely seen Black Manta has been spotted here.

There can sometimes be a strong current that changes direction as you swim over the ridge, you will encounter many other divers hanging onto the top of the rock waiting for the Manta Rays coming to get cleaned. Look out for Octopus hiding in the cracks of the rock, Clarks Anemone fish in their homes, Moray Eels in the corals, and Nudibranchs of all types and colour. This makes a fantastic early morning dive and if you are lucky enough to see a Manta a wonderful way to start the day. More than 1 dive is needed on this site to take everything in, it really is a must do dive on the Similan Islands cruise.

The other site occasionally dived here is the Koh Bon Pinnacle, this is a deep dive so is often the early morning dive. The top of the pinnacle is 18m and goes to 45m on one side, 30m on the other. This is set apart from the island itself and can have strong currents, for this reason your dive guide doesn’t hang on the surface too long descending straight down onto the pinnacle taking in the mass of yellow soft corals covering it, it is a spectacular sight.

Look out for the Shrimps, Moray Eels, Octopus and even a grumpy looking Stone fish camouflaged on the top. After 15 minutes or so swimming around the pinnacle you can make your way to the reef on the North west side of the island, always looking for Manta Rays and White Tip Reef Sharks as you go.

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