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The Gulf of Thailand

The Gulf of Thailand coast, at 1,840km well over twice as long as the Andaman Sea coastline, follows a great parabola from the border with Malaysia on the south coast around to Cambodia and the southwest tip of Vietnam. The Gulf itself is a vast, shallow depression – generally less than 60m deep and reaching a maximum of 85m – which, while incredibly productive, does not have continually great visibility.

This is largely due to the turbid waters from river outlets being trapped in the Gulf by an underwater shelf that stretches across the mouth of the Gulf from Malaysia to Vietnam. True reefs do not occur further north than those found in the Ban Krut area in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, just over 300km south of Bangkok.

There are 112 islands in the offshore waters of the Gulf, many with fringing reefs interspersed with rocks and soft seabed. Visibility around their shorelines tends to be better than the mainland, where inshore waters are affected not only by turbidity but by freshwater runoff and urban/industrial pollution. The offshore reefs have a lower diversity than the reefs of the Andaman Sea, but marine life is still reasonably prolific, with Indo-Pacific species predominating.

Eastern Gulf

Working eastwards from Bangkok, Pattaya has a well developed dive industry for both recreational and technical divers. The better dive sites here are located around the ‘Far Islands’ group, offering fringing reefs of hard and soft corals and a selection of four enjoyable wrecks. Pattaya’s dive sites also include the islands and islets off the small fishing village of Samaesan 17kms further south.

Thailand’s easternmost diving and snorkelling area covers the waters around and to the south of Koh Chang, in Trat province. This is an up and coming destination and one well worth visiting. Aside from a great diversity of dive sites including reefs, walls and pinnacles the associated marine life is as diverse as it is high and includes regular encounters with all sizes of marine life from minute invertebrates up to enormous whale sharks.