Camouflage is very important for Frogfish and they have the amazing ability to change their colour according to their surroundings and coral. Change can occur and last for days or weeks depending on the environment. Once a frogfish has found a spot which they like they generally move very little from this area. However when they do need to move it is done in a galloping manner using their pectoral fins as legs. Alternatively they can also use a jet propulsion method by gulping in water and forcing it out through their gill openings.

This species of fish is very different to regular fish as they have lost the ability to swim using their pectoral fins. They have also lost the common dorsal fin in which they have evolved it as a kind of fishing rod. The evolved dorsal fin has now become an illicum or “rod” and an esca or “lure”. The lure usually resembles a small shrimp, fish or tubeworm which it dangles in front of its mouth to attract in unsuspecting fish. When the Frogfish strikes it is quicker than the eye can see and often enough, too quick for the unaware prey.

Frogfish can eat anything, including each other. They have been know to eat anything up to 80% of its body size, from shrimp to fish (including Stonefish and Lionfish) and they can expand their mouths and stomachs to accommodate larger prey! Generally females are larger than the males (up to 10 times in some species) which makes for some interesting reproduction issues. Post mating / fertilization of the eggs, the female is responsible for looking after the new batch keeping the eggs close by or on her body.

These unusual creatures show us how amazing evolution can be and seeing one for the first time can be exhilarating – another critter to cross of your check list! Often enough divers frequent many different locations around Asia just to dive with these unique fish and luckily enough we have a few on our dive sites, especially at Koh Haa.

Congrats to Matt, Alice and Simone, our Divemaster Trainees, for completing their Rescue Diver course! During the course they really began working well as a team and had to complete all the Rescue Scenarios not only from the boat, but also the beach. They were able to refine their newly acquired rescue skills through complex scenarios in challenging conditions.

Simone, from Brazil, had been traveling and diving around Southeast Asia when she began contemplating on whether to do her Divemaster course. In October she briefly visited Lanta and had a day out diving with Ocean Divers before moving on to Koh Lipe and Phuket. Simone returned in November having decided to complete the Divemaster Internship program with us over the next few months! She has so far proved a great addition to the team and never stops smiling and laughing!

Matt and Alice are a lovely couple originally from Estonia but more recently having lived and worked in London. They have been travelling around Thailand where they were first introduced to diving and immediately hooked! In November Matt and Alice joined us for some diving and we knew right away they had a serious passion and interest by the number of questions they asked the staff. It was not long before they had decided to start on they path to becoming a professional diver by completing the Divemaster course as well! It has been great being on the boat together as they are a huge help in every aspect of the dive trip!

Prior to the Rescue course all three DMTs have already completed their Advanced Open Water Diver and Emergency First Response courses with us as well as building up the number of dives needed to start the Divemaster course. Simone and Matt have also completed their Enriched Air / Nitrox Specialty course.

Now Simone, Alice and Matt are ready to start the most challenging part of their training with us to becoming pros! All the Instructors and Divemasters here at Ocean Divers are looking forward to the next few weeks as we will be working very closely with the DMTs to teach, train and guide them to becoming PADI Divemasters!

We still have our speedboats but we’re very happy to add this great little boat to our fleet. Although she’s not a speedboat “Pitchapon” still keeps with our philosophy of small groups and personal service. We could have bought a big boat that takes 40 divers, but we prefer the smaller approach. With only 16 customers on board our divers are assured of a comfortable journey to and from the local dive sites.

Don’t worry, we still have our fast speedboats to get to the sites that are far away, but for the local sites we are now offering a more sedate, comfortable trip. We are really excited to welcome you guys aboard and go and explore the fantastic reefs around Koh Lanta. We also leave a little later in the morning now, so our guests will be a little less bleary-eyed. You’re on holiday, and know you can enjoy a bit more time in bed!

The shop front in our main office has also had a makeover. We hope you guys like it. The old creaky bamboo tables have gone, and some new furniture has been made. Our Thai staff are pretty incredible, they can drive boats one minute and make some custom shop fittings the next. Quite a few coats of paint and some seriously big posters finish off the new look. Hopefully we’ll remember to water the plant at the front of the shop.

Not to be outdone by the Thai guys, Luke has proved to pretty handy with a jigsaw. So here’s a shot of him. It might look like he’s had a serious industrial accident, but he does actually still have all of his fingers. The sweat patches are genuine though, we’ll let him off because he has been working hard doing some fine carpentry work for the boat and the restaurant.

Ocean Divers has organised and conducted another beach cleanup with Hidden Depths Diving. This cleanup was extremely successful and involved 25 people from the island including diving pros, resort staff, local business people, animal welfare volunteers and tourists visiting Koh Lanta! Over a couple of hours we managed to remove approximately 320 kilograms of rubbish along a few hundred metre section of the lovely Klong Nin beach.

The Southwest Monsoon changes the weather pattern for us on the Andaman Sea side of Thailand and causes the waves and wind to come from the Southwest at this time of year. Unfortunately this brings some of the floating rubbish in the Indian Ocean onto our beaches. We are using it as an opportunity to remove it from the cycle of going in and out with the tides and weather changes.

We were again able to use collection means like plastic bins and heavy duty bags so as not to create any additional rubbish. Also plastic and glass bottles were separated and delivered to the local recycling centre while the other truckloads of rubbish went to the dump. The majority of collected materials consisted of plastics and polystyrene, followed by glass, ropes/netting and an astonishing array of flip flops (unfortunately there were NO matching pairs)!

After the effort we rewarded ourselves with a beer or two and took the opportunity to catch up with friends or meet new ones. We are very proud that so many great people are willing to spend their time and efforts to do something for our oceans!

Thank you to everyone who helped out!

Dive Centres – Ocean Divers, Hidden Depths Diving, Anti Gravity Divers, ScubaFish, Lanta Divers, Go Dive

Volunteer Organisations – Lanta Animal Welfare

Local Businesses – Serenity Massage & Spa

Resorts – White Rock Resort, Sri Lanta Resort

Awesome job to everyone and we look forward to another beach cleanup soon!!!

Check out more photos at Ocean Divers “Keeping Lanta Clean” Gallery

The visibility at Koh Haa was great, at least 20m and whilst the 1st dive had lots of great marine life on display there were no sightings of the fabled whale shark. He probably wouldn’t admit it but Gareth kept one eye out looking in to the blue, just in case. More in hope than anticipation, you understand. He was less than surprised that the biggest thing he saw out there was an impressively large barracuda, but certainly not the mythical whale shark. Maybe it was visiting the Lochness monster, or having a coffee with a yeti.

At the end of the surface interval the boat crew got excited saying they had seen a fin. Everyone rushed into the water to see….. nothing. Gareth was starting to believe that the crew had faked the report just to get everyone in the water quickly! After fifteen minutes looking in the area the crew had reported the sighting most of the dive teams resumed their normal dive plan, maybe a little disappointed but, what did they expect…. it’s not like these things are real.

But they are! They so are! And they are freaking amazing!

The monster was about 4.5m in length and had come to play. He was happy swimming with the divers and would then head up to inspect the snorkelers on the surface, before coming back down to swim around us. Luke was fighting to control two very excited customers doing Discover Scuba Diving when the shark swam right up to them. All of the divers where being very respectful and trying to keep a safe distance from this magnificent creature, but he seemed to have other plans. More than one diver got brushed by the huge tail, don’t worry – no one was hurt and those that had been touched by the shark seemed to take great pride in it.

As customers ran low on air they were reluctantly taken back to the boat, but the shark seemed to miss the attention and came to the boat looking for his (or her) adoring fans. After another forty minutes or so snorkeling with the giant. We were interrupted when the captain insisted we had to return. He had stayed out for an extra hour to let us enjoy the experience but the weather had started to close in a little, and he wanted to get back.

Everybody on the boat; divers, snorkelers and crew got to see the fantastic animal but no one had an underwater camera!  So you’ll have to take our word for it, or you can disbelieve us if you wish.  Alternatively, come diving with us and we’ll see if we can find him for you again.

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On Saturday, 23 July Ocean Divers along with Hidden Depths dive centre organised and conducted a beach cleanup along the southern portion of Long Beach on Koh Lanta. We had decided to start an effort to cleanup the beaches during the low season here in Koh Lanta. The beaches tend to get far more debris washing up onto them due to the shift of the wind and waves during this time of year. Much of the rubbish that washes up is floating in the Andaman Sea and constantly shifting with the wind, waves and tides from place to place.

Our goal was to remove as much marine debris as we could without creating any more refuse and recycling everything possible. We used bins and heavy duty bags that are reusable to bring all plastic and glass bottles to the recycling centre, and the rubbish to a collection point on the island.

We collected approximately 180 kilograms of marine debris with at least 80% being plastics. The majority of the rest consisted of polystyrene and glass bottles as well as pieces of rope and netting/fish traps. It was great to get that stuff off the beach and prevent it from going back into our beautiful sea! All data was collected and submitted to the Project AWARE marine debris database.

All of the low season staff from both of our dive centres were involved in the cleanup and we are already planning another beach cleanup in a new location and plan to get more people involved from other dive centres and resorts around the island.

Thanks to all involved for making a difference!

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