Mermaid I goes on liveaboard trips to Burma (Myanmar) and the Mergui Archipelago area, please refer to the schedule for more information. The Burma Safari combines 22 dives in the Burma area with 8 dives through the Similan and Surin Islands area-a total of 30 dives. All in all a 9 day/9 night wonderful action packed dive safari offering the best of the Andaman Sea - diving the best dive spots Thailand and Burma.

For a map of the Burma/Mergui archipelago areas please click here.

The Mergui Archipelago

800 unexplored islands along the coasts of Burma, a liveaboard dive safari to the Mergui Archipelago promises to be the adventure of a lifetime. Closed by the Burmese government in the 1940s, Mergui was opened up again as recently as 1997.

This opens up the opportunity to breathe compressed air where it has never been breathed before. Mergui features rugged, rocky terrain. Undoubtedly the main attraction is the opportunity to observe a wealth of huge open ocean creatures, notably sharks such as silvertrips and pelagics including mantas and whale sharks.

Above sea level, the wildlife and scenery is equally impressive. Sea eagles and kites circle and dive for fish, while parakeets fly over the thickly forested islands. The islands are largely uninhabited, except for a scattering of Moken sea gypsies who have likely never seen a foreign face before. There are even reports that wild elephants and
tigers inhabit a very few of the islands.

Black Rock

Probably the most spectacular site with the most potential for big stuff in the archipelago, Black Rock is a rocky island approximately 100-meters long. Here is the closest you’ll come to having a true wall dive, with depths to over 60-meters and a dramatic drop off in most areas.

Some of the fish you will see here include black-spotted pufferfish, spotted hawkfish, scorpionfish, and blue-ringed angelfish. If you are a moray eel fan, then this is your dive site. Many unusual and rarely seen morays are common, including extra-large common green, zebra, and fimbriated and white-eyed morays. Octopus and cuttlefish can be found here, the latter easy to photograph.

Great Swinton Islands/North Twin Island

There is a large underwater plateau located close to the North Twin Island. The top of the reef has an average depth of 5-15m, with large mating cuttle fish and the highlight here are the Manta rays that visit this place many times with there graceful displays. On the deeper side of this dive site there are big boulders dropping down to 40m where you usually find a large population of black spotted stingrays sleeping on the sandy bottom.

An underwater pinnacle located close to North Twin Island. The shallowest point of this pinnacle is around 12m and continues down to over 60 meters. As you descend down the slopping reef which has been dynamited you will find a huge amount of sea fans swaying in the usually strong currents. At around 25 meters you can find large Indian nurse sharks sleeping in the overhangs. A look out in to the blue can be rewarding with large dog tooth tunas circling above.

Cavern Island

This site harbors some of the best marine life in the archipelago. Huge schools of fusilier and silversides surround you upon entering the water. The sandy base of the islands reveals unusual anemones and starfish, while the walls are covered with orange cup corals, whip corals, and green tubastrea coral. It is one of the better areas to see harlequin shrimp and harlequin ghost pipe fish.
If you’re looking for drama, there is a canyon that leads to a tunnel connecting the northern and southern part of the main, middle island. Here, if you’re lucky, you can witness gray reef sharks swimming in and out of the canyon. The trick here is to hang out against the east side of the wall and just watch what comes by.

The Burma Banks

A series of seamounts that rise up from over 300-meters to just below the surface. Depths average 15-22 meters on the flat areas on top, dropping off slowly on the edges. Some banks have a more dramatic drop off than others, but nowhere will you find a vertical wall. Diving here requires careful planning, as the currents are often strong and unpredictable. Guided drift dives are the norm, usually starting on the edge of the bank in 35-meters of water where divers stare out in the blue looking for large silvertip-, nurse- or grey reef sharks. If the sharks don’t happen to be around, the dogtooth tuna, Spanish mackerel and jack fish that patrol the reef edges will delight you. The coral is in very good shape in many places, but this varies from year to year depending on storm activity and other environmental factors.

Western Rocky Island

This limestone island features beautiful underwater terrain, including a tunnel–often full of large tawny nurse sharks–which traverses the island about 20-meters down. The island is more like a series of pinnacles rather than one big rock and the soft limestone makes for crevices offering shelter for a wide variety of sea creatures. Some of the marine life you will see here include mantas, gray reef and spinner sharks, and eagle rays in the open water next to the island, while leopard sharks and spotted rays lie on the bottom. On and around the rocks, spiny lobster, cowrie shells, feather stars, anemones and an assortment of crabs abound. Reef fish include blue-ringed angelfish, moray-eels, snappers, frogfish, and ghost pipefish.

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Burma (Mergui) Diving Area Map