Shark Point is part of a Marine Reserve and is rightly one of the most popular local dive around Phuket Island. It is located about 16 Miles (26 Km) from Chalong. The journey by boat takes one and a half hours.

The official Thai name is actually Hin Musang or ‘Shark Rock’. Along with sharks, the marine life is really great with all the reef life of the Andaman Sea.
It is a well-known spot famous for the chance of spotting many Leopard Sharks swimming or resting on the sandy bottom. Divers who are not accustomed to seeing sharks are genuinely surprised at how big and approachable they are.

Shark Point appears as a tiny outcrop with a small lighthouse used for navigation by boats, but this hides the wonderful marine environment below the surface. The limestone pinnacles are covered in soft corals and huge gorgonian sea fans, this encourages the vast amount of fish and invertebrates that surround the area.

One of the main attractions for this dive sites is the good chance to spot sharks and large schools of tropical fish is the huge limestone pinnacle decorated with a multitude of corals and colorful sea fans.

The reef can be divided into three major parts, so most divers can spend several dives here to explore the different facets of this site particularly interesting. Currents can be present, but they tend to be parallel to the different sections of the reef and thus provide an excellent opportunity to drift dive when you return to the boat.

Shark Point

Furthermore, to protect the fragile ecosystem and preserve the great variety of marine life occupying the reef, the site has been declared a marine reserve in 1992 by the Thai government. Since this date, any form of commercial fishing, collection or any other form of harmful activity to the development of fauna and flora are prohibited. In this sense, mooring buoys have been installed so that the anchors do not damage the site.

You can dive Shark point, all year long. With Scuba Cat MV Scuba Fun our daytrip boat visits this site every Wednesday and Saturday. See the map of Phuket Shark point below for the exact location. We also include this site in our South Andaman liveaboards on MV Scuba Adventure.

Shark Point dive site is suitable for open water certified divers or the last dive of the open water course.

The 13th August 2013 was a very good and special day for Phuket’s divers. In fact, in honor of her Majesty Queen Sirikit’s 81st birthday, divers community and volunteers met to cleanup our reefs and beaches.

GO ECO PHUKET is a non-governmental organization recognized by the Thaï government, that takes place every year, this year in August. This year, more than eleven diving companies and 1500 divers and non divers were present to clean up and help to protect the oldest most productive ecosystems on earth. Moreover, a lot of volunteers came, included divers of other countries who were in holidays, Thai people and students and schoolchildren from educational establishments of the island. Everybody was ready to begin this cleaning day at 7:00 am under the sun at Chalong Pier for a small briefing, TV interview and thanks for all those involved in this action.
After that, every diving teams and beach cleaners went to the beautiful Racha Yai, Racha Noi or Coarl Island to begin their job…
Our Scuba Cat Team took about 1.5 hours to go to Racha Yai with MV Scuba Fun, and about 22 people on board, included 10 volunteers.

Our destination once we arrived were the Bay’s 2 and 4 for the day.

Scuba Cat were given the responsibility for putting down 2 new mooring lines at Bay 2, the owner Sarah Kench, has donated the use of 2 1000 tonne anchors for the lines to be attached to, this will enable more mooring opportunities for the dive and snorkel boats visiting the island. Once the equipment  was on the divers went for the dives to try to make the reef of Phuket one on the top diving destination in Thaïland and in the world !!

After approximately two fifty dives each and many efforts, Scuba Fun and his team have collected bottles, clothes, old dead fish for analyses, metalics and plastics debris, ropes, ans fishing nets.
To close the day on the way back, all dive boats stood in line to celebrate this good and productive day and take pictures before going back to the pier to sort and weigh all the collected debris from the day.

We would like to thank our sponsor for the day All About Scuba Diving, the crew and volunteers who donated their time to help in this underwater clean up.

Summary of the day : 4 356 kilos of debris collected in total !

GO ECO PHUKET, it’s doing what you like, while participating in the environmental protection !

The Racha or Raya islands are located about 25 km south of Phuket and know as an excellent diving and snorkeling daytrip destinations.
However, there are some differences between them. Racha Yai is quickly developing into a place to stay on for few days with some bungalow and resort operations springing up in recent years, it is a relative small island 24 km southeast of Chalong pier on the east coast of Phuket that has always been famous for its crystal clear sea, white powder sand, snorkeling, diving and big fishing.

Racha Yai offers some of the best dive sites in the region to explore throughout the year, and generally has the best visibility year around of the daytrip destinations from Phuket. At the northern tip of the island, two pretty little bays are known for their deep, clear waters and colorful corals, they have a gently sloping sandy which also provides a good opportunity for snorkeling and diving. But the best area is considered to be on the east coast where the currents allow a gentle drift dive along a rocky slope covered with an incredible display of corals, which, in addition to the wealth of water, nutrient attracts large schools of tropical fish.

Batok Bay is clear and perfect for snorkeling, though the bay gets quite busy with visiting boats in the afternoons.

The island’s pristine beaches continue underwater as a white, sandy seabed, interspersed with hard-coral gardens and boulders. With your first experience into the clear turquoise water you’ll know you made a good choice coming here for your scuba diving. One of the best places of Racha Yai is also, Siam bay, a large bay without boat and few people which is a pretty place to isolate and enjoy the surrounding beauty of the island. Around 8 years ago a new dive site was made in this bay featuring life size concrete elephants, a temple, giant clam and other structures, this was created as an artificial reef to attract more marine life.

Besides, this place is a great place for experienced divers; it will be a good location to make a first open-water course training scuba diving. There are four points to practice diving in Racha Yai depends to season. Generally it’s sandy, gently and visibility is good in this area. You can found so many fishes, ad example schools of barracuda.

Racha Noi or Raja Noi is the more isolated of the two islands, its located 5 Km south of Racha Yai Island and about 15 km south of Phuket. But it is also a popular dive site for experienced divers. Indeed, the depth is greater and the currents generally stronger than its sister to the North Island. Racha Noi is uninhabited and has no services or accommodation, but there’s some great diving in the area.

The visibility is one of the best of the scuba dive sites day trip from Phuket due to a extra depths and proximity with the lands. Like Racha Yai there are two bays with a sandy bottom but with few people and you can make your first open water scuba diving in this area.

You will encounter huge rocks that cause the presence of Manta rays and whale sharks. The South tip of the island offers the opportunity for a dive on a large pinnacle which rises up to 12 m where you can found larger fish like Manta ray and sharks. Currents here can be quite strong, but you are rewarded by so many fishes like schools of blackfin barracuda, octopus, sea snakes and blue-spotted stingrays. Furthermore, you may be seen turtles too at Marita’s Rock which is formed by huge granite boulders.

Racha Noi offers many wonderful opportunities for deep dives.

Scuba Cat Diving has joined the cause of Shark Guardian to promote the preservation of sharks in all over the world. Shark Guardian started as a non-profit organization but as of the 1st of July 2013 it was granted a UK Charity Status. The founder is Brendon Sing who is one of the course directors for Scuba Cat and is run by him and his wife Liz Ward Sing.

Shark Guardian is implicated by the conservation, the education and actions about sharks since 1998. In the mind of so many people, sharks are aggressive and attack people like surfers or snorkelers in so different countries. However the reality is not this one, shark guardian has established a list about shark facts which demonstrate the disappearance of them caused by human’s actions.
Shark Guardian shark facts, do you know these?
97 % of all sharks species are harmless to people and more people are killed by falling coconuts, insects or other animals per year than by sharks.

People killed by animals Source: Le Monde.fr 8 July 2013

70-100 Million sharks are killed each year by humans for shark fin soup, but these one contains a high level of mercury dangerous to humans.
Sharks have existed for 400 million years and there are over 500 species of them. However, today a third of all shark species are nearly extinct.
Sharks are apex predators of the ocean and maintain the balance of all other marine life and ecosystem in the ocean.
That’s why shark guardian need people help for the conservation and protection to survive of sharks in the ocean.
If you are interested by this cause or if you want more information about shark guardian cause join or contact them on
www.sharkguardian.org
or info@sharkguardian.com

If you again think sharks are monsters and kill people in all over the world just take few minutes to know their causes and the consequences of their disappearance.

Scuba Cat is proud to be a Shark Guardian dive center, when you come to the shop we have a stock of the t-shirts where all the profit goes into the charity.

In Phuket, the weather doesn’t have the same four seasons as other parts of the world like in Europe. Don’t be afraid of the weather in low season. In July, you can wear polo shirts and shorts every day. The temperature doesn’t drop below 28°C.

There are a lot of reasons why people choose to take a vacation in Phuket.
Mostly people come to Phuket for the sea and the beaches, but there are so many more reasons, such as scuba diving, culture, great and cheap food or for the nightlife.

During the high season can be when you get the best weather, this is approximately between November and May. It is also the time when the west facing beaches in Phuket are sheltered and calm. That’s why this is the period when most of tourists come.

So, why choose the low season, here are the main reasons:

Low season is the period from June to October. Actually, it is in July we entered in the South West Monsoon season. But low season is a great time to visit Phuket. You will get sun most of the time, so many days are hot and if it does start to rain you just have to go as shelter for as long as the rain lasts. The rain that does fall mostly comes at night and often passes quickly.

Monsoon, makes people forget about beachfront vacations. But, In June,July and August for example there are not so many days of rain. During the monsoon season Phuket turns lush and green; it can be the coolest period in the year, quieter and most relaxing of all as there are few tourist in the resorts and service is at a high standard.

You can do anything in low season that you can in high season, but there are advantages to this time of year.
Hotel rates are slashed and you can generally get lower prices from tour operators, vehicle rentals, boat trips …. The months June, July and August are still a popular time to visit as people take advantage of the low season prices.
Big resorts drop prices dramatically, and you can found cheap guesthouse rooms with all necessary comfort for a handful of bhat.

Furthermore, this period is called the “green season” because with the rain there are so many tropical plants that cover Phuket. And with the fewer tourists in this season you have more space to move and to enjoy beaches and islands. Indeed, you will find more room next to the sea, less divers in the water and more space in the shops and restaurants.

Don’t hesitate to come in low season, you will find the same charm and the same beauty that Phuket and surrounding area has, but for a lower price and few people.

During the Green season we are still offering a full range of daytrips on board MV Scuba Fun, and also offer overnight trips to Phi Phi on our liveaboard MV Scuba Adventure. It is still possible to learn to dive or take continuing education programs with us throughout the year.