The Similan Islands get its name from the Malay word for “nine.” This cluster of nine islands is famed for its underwater boulder landscape and the coral gardens that grow around them.
Some of the boulders really are bits of island and where sea and land meet, I had a fish-eye view of waves breaking on the boulders above.
It’s also much of a fish nursery here. Schools and schools of little fish envelop the boulders. It makes for a beautiful sight in the right kind of light.
Sometimes the schools get so thick that you hardly see anything else beside little fish. Even other divers get obscured in the crowd.
Most times it’s hard to tell what species the fish are. Other times, when the schools are made of fish destined to be large predators, it’s easier. Here we have a school of juvenile chevron barracuda.
Those barracuda would probably grow up to feast on the blue schools of these fusiliers.
Either fusiliers or these snappers that formed a school around me.
While Islands One to Nine didn’t offer up a great deal of hard-to-find wildlife and the visibility wasn’t as great as we hoped (bad weather the night before), there were lots of great opportunities for good photos (including this one of DC).
eat. drink. cook. travel. 