ENORMOUS NURSESHARKS!

Liveaboard trip 24/12/08 – 2/1/09

BURMA SAFARI

Mermaid I

Usually, when a divesite is named ”Shark Point” or ”Manta Ledge”, you can be quite sure there won’t be any of these things there. But at ”Shark Cave” in Burma, not only did we have a cave, but also actual sharks in it! Two huge Nursesharks, to be more precise. The bigger of the pair over 3,5 meters long. Now, that’s a lot of shark in a small place...

Marble and Jenkin’s Rays seemed to gather here this trip and we found more than 20 of these Elasmobranchs, scattered around the divesite. At the nightdive we also got the chance to see them hunting.

Whatever animal the Chinese picked for this year (Pig? Rat? Monkey?) it has to be revised, since this clearly is The Year Of The Ghost Pipefish! These normally very rare critters were absolutely everywhere. In all colours and sizes, and pretty much at all divesites (up to a point where we stopped pointing them out!).
At Black Rock, apart from a beautiful pair of Harlequin Shrimps, more Ghost Pipefish and an invasion of Nudibranchs, we also encountered a large Manta Ray with a four meter wingspan, effortlessly gliding against the current.

The last day of this safari was spent in the Similan Islands. After an excellent morning dive, with a rare Tecacera Nudibranch (a.k.a. ”Bunny Ears”), two black Painted Frogfish and a pack of baby Whitetip Sharks, we headed out to Sharkfin Reef, one of the more exposed sites in Similans. A Napoleon Wrasse, big Dogtooth Tunas, massive Moray Eels and a Leopard Shark rounded off this trip nicely.

PJ Widestrand

Video-Pro
Mermaid I

Liveaboard diving Thailand, Myanmar, Bali - Komodo and the Andaman Islands.