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.

Quang is a marketing / sales intern who is with Scuba Cat for a 6 month placement from his university in Holland. As part of his internship he is receiving dive training up to Advanced open water through Scuba Cat. This is a great way to be involved in the industry and understand more about what you are trying to market. This though was more of a challenge for Quang than previous interns as he was unable to swim at the time he joined us.

Quang worked really hard, learnt to swim and snorkel and too 3 discover scuba dives prior to taking his open water course, this is his story of the day he got certified in his own words…….

Taking a deep breath, Breathing out, Opening my eyes, Seeing the sunlight: “Damn, I am now certified!!!” That is my first thinking when I completed the first of the last two skills in dive no.4 – Mask fully removed, replaced and cleared!

I could never forget two worst moments when I wasn’t able clear my flooded mask. That led to lose my regulator and suddenly come up to the surface in scare. I couldn’t recall how many times I must practice clearing my mask at the pool – win then loose, on then off because the feeling of water in my eyes and my nose is the most irritating thing for me!

I always remember the first two dives I did with Sean Porter. He is the first instructor who saw my mask clear problem and also the last one to help me end it. He must be the most experienced, the most incredible instructor I’ve known ever!

The journey to become a certified Open Water diver takes so much time and effort of me and several instructors. Yes! Several ones!!! I have done 3 times of Discover Scuba Diving with 7 dives in total without being able to swim, spent 3 days at the swimming pool. For me, each dive at that time was exciting yet worrying. I brought with me excitement, joy, nerves to underwater every time.

I must say I used to hate breathing through regulator (the weirdest kind of air ever), I couldn’t get over the feeling of water under my nose (perhaps feeling only), I wasn’t be able to be calm every time I clear the mask (I did it too fast and improperly), I couldn’t kick fins correctly and balance myself underwater. On top of that, my heart beat ten times faster every time I descended! However those things only existed in me until yesterday 26 of April.

It was a lovely Friday at Racha Yai. There was no big wave, the water was as clear as its best visibility. Benoit and I were ready, excited to finish it. I told myself hundred times “Just do it and I can!”

Racha Yai Island

Tony- my instructor- always encouraged me and made me relaxed on the way to the islands while Sean and Claus kept teasing us. We went through briefing to make sure that we understood correctly what we were going to do underwater. Yeah! There is no difference from the pool except 6 meters deeper down the sea J . “You two watch me then repeat one by one” That’s what Tony always gave a sign before each skill. We took time to perform all the skills from easy to difficult. Fortunately, all went on slowly, gently and properly. After done with skills, we had fun dives – swimming around and look for some special stuff to see

I love Racha Yai because it is a new-diver-friendly dive site. We went from a sandy bottom to a hard corral pinnacle. Marine life down here is amazing! At the dive no.2 we immediately saw a moray eel. At first, it can remind of you the giant monster undersea with big long mouth and sharp teeth in the imaginary movies that we often see, in fact, it is not dangerous at all.

There are many blue sea stars laying on the ground, many ugly moving sea cucumbers, lots of groups of colourful fished that I don’t know their names… They all look amazing!

ImageAt dive no.3, we were so lucky to meet a group of barracuda. We got closer to them, watched them and stayed with them in a while. I really wanted to get into the group but afraid that they would swim away.

At dive no.4, Tony taught us to use the compass. It is quite important to master the navigation skill by compass. It helps us direct and avoids getting lost underwater. Once swimming on the surface with my compass, suddenly I forgot my buddy Benoit and swam too fast. Tony wasn’t happy about that and reminded us the importance of staying together with the buddy. Sean and Claus were watching and laughing a lot, yeah teasers again!

Once I finished CESA, I descended with Sean while Benoit and Tony were doing CESA. Few minutes later, I met Tony, Benoit and my lovely Thai colleague: Fon. I had prepared for this last dive, perhaps because of my uninteresting skill: Mask fully removal and replacement. After Tony’s demonstration, he came closer to me, hold my BCD and put his fingers on regulator. I knew he was always there in front of me. Taking a deep breath, I took the mask out, closed my eyes, pinch my nose for one second, slowly breathed out through my nose, put the mask strap over my head, pulled over and put on my face, taking a another deep breath, Breathing out through my nose, Opening my eyes, Seeing the sunlight, “Damn, I am now certified!!!” That was my first thinking. Looking at Tony, I saw his smiley eyes. He shakes my hand to congratulate me. I gave him a sign to show my happiness again. I swear it has been the happiest moment so far!

I felt all of the stress, worry and scare were released with the water once I finished it. I now could stabilize myself in the water by control my breath inhale and exhale, my fin kicking got better. There were moments I stretched myself out like a cat on the sofa. I turn myself around and enjoyed the feeling of being free.

As swimming around the pinnacle, we found a red octopus. It was my first time seeing it. Keeping our eyes on it in minutes, it suddenly swam away, we slightly moved after it, it went to a rock and changed its colour. What an amazing scene!

Not to bother it anymore, we continued our journey, on the way back I saw a lionfish. I have seen it few times and I couldn’t hold back to lionfish’s beauty. This lionfish noticed us so it opened its fin spines to warn us. How beautiful it is to see! But okay we would leave it alone.

Coming back to the boat, many people cherished me. I certainly couldn’t hide my happiness. On the way back to the pier, I was thinking of the efforts of so many peoples. What I have achieved today in dedication to Sean’s training, (Santa) Claus and Patrick’s experiences, Tony’s instruction, Debbie, Fon and Sang’s supports and many other’s encouragements.

When diving over sand area’s of a dive site there are so many interesting critters that are often not seen or ignored by divers, one of these is the symbiotic pairing of the goby and shrimp.

Almost all of our dive sites by there nature have sandy bottoms and instead of passing quickly over them it is good to swim slowly and enjoy watching the behavior of these interesting room mates.
The sandy bottom of the reef is full of interesting creatures and fascinating methods have been devised for survival techniques used by reef inhabitants to prevent becoming food to predatory fish. Often this results in some interesting partnerships between marine creatures. One of the more curious relationships that most divers could have come across is that between the goby fish and the shrimp.
The little goby that firmly stands his ground outside his burrow belongs to a very special group of gobies called “shrimp gobies”. There are 70 or so brightly coloured shrimp gobies recorded worldwide in tropical waters and the western Indo Pacific is home to most of them. Their uniqueness is that they live in partnership with “pistol shrimps”. Pistol shrimps are so named for the loud snapping sound and the jet of water that comes from the rapid closing of a modified claw.

The gobies spend their day near entrance ways keeping their eyes peeled for predators, such as jacks and lizardfish, while the hard-working shrimp bulldoze sand into the open from the burrow below.
The front entrance of the burrow is often reinforced with bits of shell and coral put in place by the shrimp.

The goby will usually sit at the entrance of the burrow maintaining a constant vigil against potential predators, while the shrimp is clearing gravel from the burrow. Whenever the shrimp needs to dump gravel outside the burrow, it is usually exposed to potential predators. However with the Goby keeping lookout, the shrimp places one tentacle on the Goby while exposed, so if the Goby darts inside the burrow, the shrimp is instantly alerted of the presence of a predator and it too darts back inside the safety of its burrow. Often pairs of gobies or pistol shrimps will inhabit the same burrow.

They work between sunrise and sunset, resting with the gobies, inside the burrow at night. And like most homes, burrow construction varies according to its inhabitants. Scientists have even found that the sizes and shapes of burrows depend on the type of sediment available and to some degree on the species of shrimp. So the goby gets a professionally constructed and safe house away from predators, and somewhere to lay its eggs.
Gobies eat micro-fauna and sometimes tiny fish they find near the bottom, the shrimps feed on what they find in their burrowing and hence they do not compete for food.

The special relationship that exists between these two species is called symbiosis. Symbiosis literally means “living together” and can take more than one form but it is always between individuals of different species. It can mean, for example, that only one of the species benefits with no effect on the other, or that one species of the pair benefits but the other is harmed in the process. In the shrimp-goby case both species gain equal benefit and they significantly increase their chances of survival in a hostile world. This particular type of symbiosis is called “mutualism”. Their relationship is one that has developed through a mutual need and benefit to both species.

These animals are dependent on each other. Remove the fish, and the shrimp stops burrowing; the shrimp forage while burrowing, so without a fish, they grow more slowly. The shrimp need their guard goby, and the guard goby needs its shrimp: deny the goby shelter in a burrow, and it will promptly be killed by predators (someone did the experiment). The shrimp keep the goby clean, too: they groom it.

So how do the Gobies and Shrimp find each other in the first place? Shrimp-goby researchers have been trying to figure out this one for a long time, and have conducted numerous experiments to determine whether the Gobies find the shrimp, or vice versa, and also to determine whether they locate each other optically or are attracted chemically. There has been no definitive answer as to who spots who in this symbiotic relationship but it appears that the short sighted shrimp uses chemical senses, and the goby uses it’s much better developed visual sense for finding each other at a very young stage of their life.

Find out more about interactions and partnerships by taking the underwater Naturalist  specialty course with Scuba Cat and see the goby and shrimps at many of our dive sites both by daytrip and liveaboard.

Scuba Cat organized a Finathon and underwater clean up event on the 16th of Feb 2013 under the banner of ‘We Belong to the Sea’.

This is the concept of Quang one of our sales and Marketing interns who is with us for 6 months on a placement from his school in Holland.
The idea is to develop more knowledge about factors affecting the sea and the marine life in our local area, by promoting conservation and raising public awareness through events and collaborations with local businesses.
We belong to the sea incorporated a sponsored fin and an underwater clean up at Paradise reef in the South of Patong on Phuket.
Scuba Cats owner and General manager Sarah Kench, donated the boat MV Scuba Fun for the day, along with providing food, the crew and drivers free of charge to make the even possible.

For the past 6 weeks Quang has worked very hard to promote the event getting the local newspaper. The Phuket News, and Live 98.5 Radio involved. There were several articles in print and a live radio interview with Quang and Kathryn Ridley the tour leader of our liveaboard MV Scuba Adventure.

From this we got some of our divers who took part in the day.
We decided to also include a treasure hunt to encourage divers and snorkelers to take part in the day. For this we needed some prizes, we got these in the form of vouchers and goods from some of the local businesses on the island.

We need to thank the following people and organizations for their involvement in this.

2C Phuket Residence
Dive Supply Phuket
Phuket Lager Beer
Fun Mags Media
Phuket Guide by Southern Three Media.

Prizes ranged from crates of larger to a nights accommodation in a hotel, to food and drinks vouchers in local restaurants.

We also need to thank the following organizations for cash donations for the finathon, get swimming to stop shark finning. This is a way to raise awareness of Shark Finning by Project AWARE.

Amazing Thailand Maps
Sonya’s Guest house
Asia Pacific
Aquamaster Phuket

The day started at our shop in the Kee Plaza with Quang introducing the event and welcoming the participants. We had 15 divers and snorkelers in total. regional manager Tony Andrews was there to see the opening.
Everyone then went to our Boat MV Scuba Sport which was a platform for the day.
The divers did the first dive removing bags of fishing lines, lead weights, bottles and cans.

During the surface time we completed the Finathon, this was the sponsored snorkel, everyone on board took part in this and completed the 1km swim in no time.

The second dive saw more lines and weights brought up, along with fishing lures, bottles and a broken fish cage.

After the event everyone was invited back to Molly Molones Irish bar who put on free food and gave a discount on drink for those who took part.

Everyone also won a prize with the treasure hunt, even Josh who won an xs ladies wet suit:) (he is an XL man).

The lionfish is a common site in the Andaman and seen on all of the dive sites we go to, both by daytrips and liveaboards.
Nobody knows for sure how they got their name, and they are also known as turkey or dragon fish in some area’s. One thought is when they spread out their pectoral fins it sort of looks like a lion’s mane, and they are ferocious predators

They are beautiful and fascinating fish but due to their colouring, as is common in nature, most times bright and beautiful means dangerous. Its bright colours advertise its poisonous tentacles. The venom of the lionfish, delivered by up to 18 needle-like dorsal fins and is purely defensive. A sting from a lionfish is extremely painful to humans and can cause nausea and breathing difficulties, but is rarely fatal.
The scientific name for the lionfish is Pterois, and there are fifteen different species in the Pterois Genus of fish.

The largest of the lionfish species can grow to about 40cm in length, but the average is closer to 30cm, with the smallest around 6cm, and they weigh somewhere around 500 to 900g. Their lifespan in the wild can be around 15 years.

They are mainly active during the day and at night the Lionfish find crevices among rocks that they rest in, this is so they are not out of the open where they would be at risk of predators consuming them.

It relies on camouflage and fast reflexes to capture their prey which is mainly fish and shrimp.. Adult lionfish use their distinct pectoral fins to attract the prey. As soon as the prey comes within their reach, they swallow it in a single motion. Though not quite unique, this method of hunting is highly successful in regions where the lionfish is a non-native species as the native population of the area is not used to such traps. They are able to move around very quickly in the water. They are very good at using those long pectoral fins to herd fish and other prey into a confined area, trapping it making it simple for them to get their food. The lionfish’s stomach can expand to 30 times its normal size so they can really fill up, this is why it is such an invader in the Caribean.

They are solitary and they will become very aggressive if they feel that their home territory is at risk. The males tend to be more aggressive overall than the females. While adult lionfish are solitary creatures, juveniles are known to live together in groups. Over the course of time, they become highly territorial and don’t even hesitate to take on the other members of their group to capture and/or defend their territory.

The native habitat of lionfish spans the rocky crevices and reefs of the Indo-Pacific waters, but they can be found in the eastern coast of America. It is not clear how they have found their way there but it is thought that some specimens who were released by certain aquariums, and have begun to thrive in these warm waters without any natural predators. There is one documented case of lionfish escaping from an aquarium located in a house damaged by Hurricane Andrew – the fish were seen swimming nearby after the storm. The “on purpose” introductions are assumed to occur from hobbyists who dumped them into canals (not knowing any better) when the fish either got too large for their aquariums or became unwanted. Genetic evidence from recent scientific results suggests multiple introductions.

Learn more about marine life in the area with our AWARE Fish ID, Naturalist or Advanced open water courses.