Ko Tao, Thailand is known for its numerous dive sites. Diving plays a significant role in the local economy.
| Name | Max. depth | Visibility | Average depth | Level | Features | Marine life |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Rock (Shark Island) | 28m | 5-30m | 15m | Open water + | Huge boulders and rock formations, stunning soft corals. Drift diving for the experienced. | Resident turtle, great barracuda, titan triggerfish and clown triggerfish |
| Hin Wong Pinnacle | 40m | 15-20m | 17m | Open water + | Tabletop rock formation covered with a variety of hard and soft corals. | Hawksbill turtle, snapper, sweetlips, porcupine pufferfish, juvenile boxfish |
| Mango Bay | 16m | 5-20m | 10m | Beginner + | Only accessible by boat and a perfect dive site for first timers with a sandy bottom and shallow reef. Now also accessible by a recently built road through the jungle from Sairee beach | Small reef fish, puffer, moray eels |
| White rock | 20m | 10-30m | 12m | Open water + | A wide band of coral reef with an impressive diversity of hard and soft corals. | Wrasses, butterflyfish, angelfish, moray eels, clownfish, and triggerfish. |
| Nang Yuan Pinnacle | 19m | 10-30m | 10m | Open water + | A large boulder with swim-through arches and to the west a large cave to explore. | Giant whiptail ray, moray, pipefish, crabs, titan triggerfish and reef shark. |
| Twins | 22m | 10-25m | 12m | Open water + | Three groups of granite rocks covered in corals and sponges, divided by sandy patches and a backdrop of colorful coral garden. | Blue spotted ray, juvenile blue-ringed angelfish, six-barred angelfish, clownfish, scorpionfish and pink anemone. |
| Green rock | 28m | 10-30m | 16m | Open water+ | A maze of swim-throughs, canyons, caverns and caves created by giant boulders. | Yellow-margin and titan triggerfish, giant trevallies, cobias and stingrays, occasional reef shark sightings. |
| Japanese gardens | 14m | 10-15m | 10m | Beginner + | Hundreds of hard and soft coral formations creating the impression of an oriental garden. A dive boat also rests at around 15 meters, which was destroyed in the summer of 2009 and was towed to the site. | Abundance of small coral fish and a variety of nudibranchs. |
| Chumphon pinnacle | 45m | 5-30m | 24m | Experienced diver | Four granite pinnacle carpeted with anemones. | Whale shark (seasonal), giant grouper, barracuda, bull shark, bat fish and tuna. |
| South west pinnacle | 33m | 10-30m | 20m | Advanced + | A collection of pinnacles with a unique topo-graphical arrangement, giant fan corals. | Whale shark (seasonal), giant grouper, barracuda, occasional leopard shark. |
| Sail rock | 45m | 15-35m | 30m | All level | Huge rock chimmey with an amazing vertical swim-through that ascends from 18m to 8m. Amongst the gulf of Thailand first diving sites | Large pelagics, king mackerel, tuna, whale shark and manta. |
Famous quotes containing the word diving:
“A worm is as good a traveler as a grasshopper or a cricket, and a much wiser settler. With all their activity these do not hop away from drought nor forward to summer. We do not avoid evil by fleeing before it, but by rising above or diving below its plane; as the worm escapes drought and frost by boring a few inches deeper.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)