Anemone Reef

Anemone Reef or Hin Jom (Submerged Rock) lies just underwater, about 600 meters to the north of Hin Musang. As the Thai name makes clear, no part of the pinnacle is exposed, and underwater the rock drops off more dramatically to a depth of between 20-27 meters until reaching a bottom of sand and oyster shells.

Although not as colourful as Shark Point, the fish life here is excellent as well and our friends, the leopard sharks, often are seen free-swimming at the top of the rock in six meters of water.

A couple of years ago, my dive buddy and I counted 92 lionfish in less than 20 minutes at this dive site! Although this is not an everyday occurrence, as lionfish seem to move around from place to place, I know people that have spent years diving without seeing this many in total, much less on one dive. This gives you the idea of just how dense the marine life is in these areas.

Located just south of Ao Phang Nga and all of its fresh water rivers, visibility averages around 10 meters, often less. Although conditions such as this are not what divers dream of when they think of perfect vision, the amount of marine life more than makes up for the often limited visibility.

On days when the water becomes so clear that you can see the bottom, diving here feels like taking a breath of fresh air and even the fish seem to be happier. Unfortunately for the local diving community, conditions are virtually impossible to predict so I can offer no advice about the best times to go.

The only downsides of these sites are the visibility and the occasional strong currents, making both locations intermediate to advanced level dive sites. Beginners should be closely supervised by trained professionals and this is certainly no place to conduct beginning diving courses.