I might have maligned the Similans a bit by pointing out that the coral is kinda dead, the diversity is lacking, and the tourists outnumber almost everything else. It's true, but it's not the whole story. The truth is that we still had a great time and saw some amazing things underwater. It's just not the in-your-face marine lushness that we've been completely spoiled by in the past.
The first and most striking aspect was how crystal clear the water is- really, the clearest we've seen since French Polynesia. The viz dropped a little at the northern end, but apparently that's partly because we're still at the front edge of the NE monsoon season- it will be better still in January.
The island is a string of nine are granite heaps (Similan is from the Malay word for nine, sembilan), about fifty miles northwest of Phuket. The big boulders of an islet behind Totem's transom above? They give you a sense for the shape of the underwater environment as well- much of the time, what we're swimming through and around looks like this image of Niall below. The swell coming through rocks and crevices could make things a little interesting upon occasion, but we only had a few barnacle scrapes.
Another really crazy, I have no idea what the heck it is, underwater critter were these transparent batwing things. I have no idea how to even categorize it. Can you see it in the image below? Anyone with more marine smarts than we have who can ID? The boomerang-like shapes averaged about a foot long, and an inch or two tall. There was a school of hundreds of these that came through, and just kind of bounced off our bodies as we swam against the current that carried them along.
We saw more holothurians (sea cuccumbers) than we've seen in a long time. Not just more, and a variety, but some really big ones- see the shape next to my body below?
These are sought after for the Chinese culinary market, and completely fished out in may places we visited. If you are wondering what they taste like, let me just save you the experience and say- it's gross, don't. You're welcome.
I was so excited to even see a fan, that I took a picture of it. It's really unremarkable, except for the pathetic fact that it was so very much alone.
There weren't a lot of soft corals, either, so the few spotted naturally stood out. Look at this beautiful thing! I think it's a bubble coral.
Dan and I came back from one expedition raving about all the spider conchs we'd seen. The striking difference? All his had a mollusck inside, and all mine had hermit crabs. There were a lot of hermit crab conventions happening on the sea floor. I swear these two were having a convention.
A lot of the schools of fish were hanging out in about a 12" range from coral heads, like this one at right. They just look like bait to me. They look like bait to a lot of fish, I think. Pretty, though, and curious. It's fun to swim through them. Does that make me an irresponsible snorkeler? I hope not!
The sheer volume of wee little baitfish schools everywhere was one of the most consistent impressions of the Similans. Almost any panned-out photo you look at, they're the speckles in the distance or the blob that makes a coral head's otherwise sharp edges appear a litlte fuzzy.
It seemed to be the nursery for many fish. Check out this crazy little translucent one: it was about the size of my pinkie finger. That's it. Teeny. There were a pile of them right next to Totem.
I wonder if the juveniles are just finding this a good place to get bigger, so they can go out to the Andaman and get plucked off in mass by the wall of fishing boats? Yes, cynical me. But it's true. You could always count a half dozen boats during the day, and many many more strung out along the horizon at night. No way were they staying outside the 5-mile no take zone that's supposed to exist around the park. Sad.
The occasional pelagic fish managed to make it through the gauntlet. One of the cooler fish was this giant barracuda. It was just hanging out on the bottom, minding it's own business, not wanting to bother anyone. Just... sitting there. Niall went down to take a look, and it was barely fazed. Besides the big (and sorry, but fuzzy) 'cuda in this shot- check out the gazillion little speckles. FISH. There were so, so, so many little fish everywhere around the Similans.
These four trevally spent most of the day around a coral head that was under Totem. It was FULL of tiny fish- see the fuzzy stuff in the photo? Fish. They move in a school almost like they share a brain. Most of the time, the trevally were just acting cool, but every once in a while one of them would blast through the school for a little snack. It was wild to watch.
Gratuitous anemone shot, because clownfish are just so dang cute. Yes, I'm a sucker for the whole Nemo thing, fine, laugh at my expense. I'll just leave you with that cuteness.
If you're reading this on the SAILfeed website, you're tossing change in our cruising kitty. Thank you!
