Weird creature of the month – November

The epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) is a species of long tailed carpet shark, found in the shallow, tropical waters of Australia and New Guinea (and possibly elsewhere).
The most fascinating thing about this shark is that it doesn’t swim! It actually walks on the bottom by the help of their fins. Only if it feels really threatened it swims just to get away. The name of this shark comes from the very large, white-margined black spot behind each pectoral fin, which are significant of military epaulettes.

It’s a small shark, typically less than 1 m long and has a small body with a short head and broad, paddle-shaped fins, two on each side. This little guy feeds on small shrimps, crabs, small fish and snails. The epaulette shark has evolved to cope with the severe nighttime oxygen depletion (hypoxia) in isolated tidal pools by increasing the blood supply to its brain and selectively shutting down non-essential neural functions. It is capable of surviving complete anoxia for an hour without ill effects, and at a much higher temperature than most other hypoxia-tolerant animals.

Sadly this shark is very common for people to have in their aquariums at home due to its size, and the worst natural enemies in the ocean are bigger fishes such as larger sharks. Hopefully there are enough sharks left in the oceans so that me and you can have the opportunity to swim with one someday.

 

Matilda Friberg
Kon-Tiki Krabi

Weird creature of the month – October

Dugong is a large marine mammal, together with manatees, they belong to order of Sirenia, which  today has only four living species.

Dugongs can weigh as much as 380 kg and reach up to 3 m in length. They can live long, oldest recorded specimen reached age of 73. They have several nick names like Sea Cow, Sea Pig, Lady of the Sea, the last one comes from the Malay word duyung. Dugongs have been on the hunters list for thousands of years due their meat and oil. Closest relative to dugong, the Steller’s sea cow was hunted down in the 18^th century. Today authorities are trying to save dugongs with different conservation and protection projects.

In some cultures they are legendary for their medicinal purposes. In Southern China catching dugong was thought to bring bad luck.

Did you know that actually dugongs are considered to be the inspiration for Mermaids?

Dugong populates more than 37 countries throughout Indo-Pacific. Biggest population you can find is from coast of Northern Australia. The sea of Trang province in the Andaman Sea is home to dugong as the area is rich with sea grass.

Dugongs have few natural predators, although animals such as crocodiles, orcas, and sharks pose a threat to the young.

Dugongs are called as “sea cows” because their diet consists mainly of sea-grass. Occasionally they eat jellyfish, sea squirts, and shellfish. Dugong can spend all their life in sea water, without having need for fresh water.

Due to their poor eyesight, dugongs often use smell to locate edible plants. They dig up an entire plant and then shake it to remove the sand before eating it. Sometimes they collect first a pile of plants before eating it. The muscular upper lip is used to dig the plants out, witch leaves furrows in the sand in their path. They may travel long distances to find food. As they need a lot of sea grass then usually we can’t find many dugongs in the same area. They spend most of their lives solitary or in pairs.

Dugongs may stay under water up to six minutes, dive down to 39 meters, but most probably you can meet dugong at depth of around 10 meters. Most of the dugongs in Thailand we can find in Trang province (2013 about 110-125 individuals), where a much smaller population lives in Gulf of Thailand.

Dive sites explained – King Cruiser

King Cruiser sank on the 4^th of May 1997 after a collision with Anemone Reef, a well chartered pinnacle. All passengers escaped on life rafts and picked up by nearby diving and fishing vessels.

The ship is a rebuilt, 85 meter long catamaran type, car ferry that was carrying passengers between Phuket and Phi Phi Islands and now stands completely upright at 32 meters of depth. During the years, she has rusted away and collapsed into a fantastic artificial reef, filled with gorgonians, soft coral and large schools of fish.

Access to the wreck is from a mooring line secured at the stern at around 18 meters. Due to the current, sometimes low visibility and the deep average depth, to really enjoy this dive you should be a comfortable advanced diver.

Highlights

• Right below the mooring at the stern you can find several toilets, still intact. This calls for some very interesting underwater photo shoots.
• Following the stern towards the starboards side you will find a huge propeller, half buried in the sand. This is also one entrance to swim the whole length of the ship under the hull.
• In the bow of the ship you can still find paint on the inside of one of the hulls.
• Due to the depth, Nitrox is a great way to extend the bottom times. For double cylinder tec40 or sidemount divers, there are great rewards for having a deeper profile as you can stay away from the crowd and have time investigating these parts.
• The wreck has such an abundance of schooling fish, which in turn are hunted by larger predators. Here you have a great chance spotting huge trevallies as well as leopard sharks on the bottom and other passing pelagics.

To think about

• Currents can be very strong so the mooring line should be used during both descents and ascents. As King Cruiser has many visitors, the line gets crowded at times so here we make sure to be considerate.
• There are still many swim troughs along the wreck that calls for some caution, as the rusty edges of the wreck are extremely sharp.
• Keep a close eye on the computer and gas supply as the average depth is usually deeper than 18 meters.

depth:               18 – 32 meters
current:             moderate – strong
visibility:            10 – 25 meters

You can dive King Cruiser from our dive centers in Phuket, Koh Lanta & Krabi

Weird creature of the month – September

The name “Bobbit worm” was puplished in the 1996 book “Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific”, in reference to Lorena Bobbit, who was charged for cutting of her husbands private parts. The name is inspired only by the scissor like jaws of the worm.

The Bobbit worm is an aquatic predator with a lot of bristles. It lies at the floor of the warm tropical oceans of the Indo – Pacific and warmer regions of the Atlantic. This organism buries its long body into an ocean bed composed of gravel, mud or corals in shallow water. Here it waits patiently for a response to one of its five antennae, attacking when it senses a prey. Armed with sharp teeth, it is known to attack with such speeds that there is no escape and the prey is sometimes sliced in half. The worm hunts for food at night and eats everything from small fish, corals or seaweed up to larger aquatic predators.

The Bobbit Worm injects a narcotizing or killing toxin in their prey animal, so it can be safely ingested — especially if they are larger than the worm, like a Pacific lionfish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H4J5QDQeA4.

The worm can even harm humans, since the toxin can cause permanent numbness.

Unlike a different family of worms, the fire worms, which have harpoon-shaped bristles that release a toxin that can cause severe skin irritation, the Bobbit Worms specimens bristles are not used for defensive purposes. They simply use their bristles for improving traction for crawling over the sediment or inside their galleries or tubes.

Little is known about the sexual habits and lifespan of this worm, but researchers hypothesize that sexual reproduction occurs at an early stage, maybe even when the worm is about 100 mm.

100 mm is very small, considering these worms can grow to sizes of nearly 3 meters, although the average length is 1 m and 25 mm in diameter.

Bobbit worms may accidentally be introduced into artificial environments. In March 2009, the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay, England, discovered a Bobbit worm in one of their tanks. The workers had seen the devastation caused by the worm, such as fish being injured or disappearing and coral being sliced in half, but did not find it until they started taking the display apart in the tank. The worm was nicknamed “Barry”.

Dive sites explained – Bida Nok

This dive site is one of the most popular and visited site on the west coast of Thailand. Boats travel from Phuket, Phi Phi, Ao Nang and Koh Lanta to dive here, but it is easy to escape the crowd.

Bida Nok is the outer island of the two limestone cliffs just south of Phi Phi. The south eastern bay is the usual entry for students and beginner divers, but the north western deeper part is a nice alternative for the more experienced.

Depth ranges from just a few meters in the bay to around 30 meters on the wall, which continues out even deeper. However, below 20 meters there is usually a thermocline with poor visibility and fewer amounts of corals with marine life.

Highlights

• The bay area itself usually has good visibility with lots of small schools of barracudas and snappers. Here the bottom is filled with sea urchins and pistol shrimps with their partner gobies. Out in the sand there are possibilities to find Kuhl´s stingrays. Keeping the reef on the right you head straight towards finger reef, a pristine ridge filled with critters.
• Following the bay heading north, we pass several pinnacles where you can find scorpion fish, clown fish, morays and hunting trevallies. After 20-30 minute swim the rocks turns to an alley filled with large gorgonian fan corals bursting with life.
• Between the bay and the area with the gorgonians the shallow area is filled with colourful corals. Here there are a few blacktip reef sharks circling the rocks in only a couple of meters depth.
• Following the north western wall heading south is quite spectacular. Before midday this side of the island is in the shade, which combined with good visibility, a great feeling of depth. Above the rocks and pinnacles there are schools of trevallies and jacks as well as an abundance of reef life.
• As the western side meets the finger reef, the wall here is covered by shrimps, glassfish and other schools of fish. The Occasional octopus is not uncommon and there is a chance to spot leopard sharks out in the sand.

To think about

• Currents are not unusual for this island and will control the direction that you can dive this site, sometimes even as strong, having to turn the dives around.
• Scorpion, lionfish and sea urchins are common so keeping buoyancy control here as with every reef is very important.
• As this is a popular site there are many boats and divers around. Make sure to respect other groups and surface close to the reef even if you are under a surface marker.

depth:                  5 – 30 meters
current:                mild – moderate
visibility:               10 – 25 meters

You can dive Bida Nok from our dive centers in Phuket, Koh Lanta & Krabi