Richelieu Rock
One of the star attractions of the Andaman Sea (and coveniently located for Khao Lak diving!), Richelieu Rock is famed for housing everything from the most obscure marine life to the biggest of the big fish, with whale shark sightings becoming increasingly common throughout the season.
Situated to the north of the Similan islands, Richelieu Rock is part of the Surin National Park. The Rock itself is a submerged pinnacle which forms the shape of a horseshoe. The north of the dive site is characterized by a rock face which rises to the surface in low tide and drops to a sandy bottom of about 30 meters. The south side has a shallower incline composed of a collection of rocks and crevices, which can provide shelter during strong currents. Soft and hard corals are interspersed across the divesite, with the northwest rock face covered in a diverse collection of soft tree coral. The star attractions include sea horses, ghost pipe fish, Janss’s pipefish, harlequin shrimp and tigris allied cowries. Juvenile sweetlips, angel fish and cube box fish also make a frequent appearance. A wide variety of clown fish including the tomato clown fish, squat shrimp, moray eels, cuttlefish and octopus are common. There is also a large resident nurse shark, resting in a small cave in the south side. Around the outside of the pinnacle, large schools of barracuda as well as blue finned trevallies cause mischief to schooling rainbow runners, yellow damsels and blue powered surgeon fishes. The diversity of the dive site easily accommodates multiple dives.
Click on the map for a larger picture
This map is taken from Pocket divesite’s guide book: Similans including Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, Richelieu Rock more. Info at pocketdivesite@gmail.com. You can also purchase this book in our shop! Only 100 Baht. This is one of the best dive site books we’ve run across.
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