Special MID-SUMMER MADNESS Promotion for 2010
Book a luxury resort and diving package from just 4,500 THB per person!

Deals for Certified Divers

• 3 day, 2 night + 1-Day Dive Trip * – 4,500 THB (normal price 6,500 THB)
• 5 day, 4 night + 3-Day Package * – 12,300 THB (normal price 15,975 THB)
• 4 day, 3 night + AOW – 15,700 THB (normal price 18,400 THB)

Deals for Beginner Divers

• 3 day, 2 night + 1 Day Try Diving – 6,100 THB (normal price 8,200 THB)
• 6 day, 5 night + OWC – 18,100 THB (normal price 23,400 THB)
• 8 day, 7 night + OWC + AOW – 32,500 THB (normal price 40,300 THB)

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Underwater photographs are captured from the dive sites and reefs around Ko Lanta. Stay up to date on what diving conditions are like right now. Photos are usually updated daily and are from today or yesterday’s dives.

Please visit the Liquid Lense Flickr photostream to view more of our underwater images.

Koh Lanta’s tropical climate is governed by 2 distinct monsoons, the ‘Dry’ North-east monsoon which coincides roughly with high season (between November and April), and the ‘Rainy’ South-West monsoon falling roughly between May and October, or the tourist low season.

What weather should I expect if I visit between May and October?

The South-West monsooon winds that control Lanta’s weather over this period do not switch direction at the same time each year, in fact over the last few years this switch appears to be happening later and later. This means that the rain can start late June, and even stop for a month or so. These winds bring a mixture of dry and wet days, and it is far from unusual to experience gloriously sunny weather for weeks at a time even during the rainy season. At the start of the monsoon season the rain tends to come in the late evening or night. The most rainfall seems to occur from around August to mid-October. In general when it does rain, it tends to be heavy, quick and occur in short bursts. Ocassionally it may rain for 3 or 4 days towards the end of the season. The temperature rarely falls below 27 degrees.

What should I expect of diving in the low season?

This is diving as it should be! From May through to around August the visibility actually increases, with distances in excess of 50 meters being reported from Ko Haa and Hin Daeng, Hin Muang. Crystal blue, aquarium-like conditions are frequently experienced by divers coming at this time of year. The visibility tends to start dropping slightly between August and October, but even at this time rarely drops below 15m at Ko Haa. The water temperature hovers around 30-31 degrees through until the start of July, then drops slowly to around 28 degrees.

Scubafish use Lanta Old Town,a picturesque and historic fishing town on the South East of the island, as our departure point throughout these months. Enjoy plenty of room on our comfortable, spacious dive boats, and an even more personal service from divemasters and instructors, as you take in the sights of the National Park and lighthouse during your journey around the bottom of the island, passing several of the smaller Lanta archipelago islands on your trip out.

It can feel like your own private adventure, as you approach dive sites where often you will be on the only boat. If you are a fan of fish over divers then this is the ideal time to come and dive Koh Lanta. The reduction in dive and boat activity lends itself to some spectacular diving, with a natural increase in marine life activity, and the ability to offer longer dives. Furthermore May and June are renowned for an increase in manta ray and whaleshark sightings around Lanta’s dive sites (last year for instance, Lanta was fortunate enough to have 27 consecutive days of sightings with these majestic creatures.)

However do be aware that boats do not go out daily over this period since sea conditions can become unfavourable, although it is not rain that limits these activities, but the wind and resulting waves. Dive operators and boat captains keep a keen eye on weather forecasts and reports, and make informed decisions on a daily basis as to whether boats go out, and to where….safety first!

What about the island itself?

Less tourists, Fantastic beaches, Unhurried pace, Thai hospitality.


Koh Lanta is a true gem of an island offering a relaxed tropical atmosphere, a choice of 10 unspoilt beaches, tidal mangroves, rainforests, waterfalls and tree-covered mountains. Low Season is also referred to here as the Green Season, since the rains allow a rejeneration of the flora and forests across the island. Koh Lanta Yai is quite a long island (27kms) and as such the beaches are never full, and the general ambience is far less commercialised than neighbouring islands such as Koh Phi Phi, or Phuket. This is particularly the case the further south you journey on Koh Lanta, where there are fewer resorts, and the views and beaches become progressively more rugged and beautiful. The low season means cheaper accomodation, a holiday away from the crowds, from the parties, and noisy bars. So if the idea of sleeping to the sounds of of cicadas, the waves breaking on the beach, and bullfrogs singing, holds more appeal for you than the bass from a bar then Lanta is definately the island for you.

Divers and PADI Professionals can receive the Project AWARE version of their certification card with a minimum donation of AUD$10 toward underwater conservation.

Your vote counts! Be sure to cast your vote for the next Project AWARE version of the PADI certification card – the card that supports conservation.

Update your PADI Card Online Today!

Do you fancy a more exciting version of your PADI Certification Card, or simply want to update your details or photo? Get a card with a picture that your dive buddies might recognise. To update your certification card today, contact your local PADI Dive Centre or Resort or order online.

Support conservation – Donate AU$10 or more and receive the Project AWARE version of your PADI Certification Card. Your support funds critical projects like cleanups, shark conservation and research into coral bleaching.

• AU$10 can involve two kids in marine education.
• AU$25 can provide a cleanup toolkit to remove harmful underwater debris.

Take action today

Project AWARE 2010 Certification Cards:
Choose from three Project AWARE 2010 Edition certification cards! Project AWARE cards feature images of sharks, turtles and stunning coral reefs – order a limited edition certification card online today.

Scuba certification cards – designs may vary depending on local availability. Please give generously to ensure our ocean’s future. Thank You.

Limited Edition PADI Certification Cards:
PADI also has three new limited edition replacement cards available! These limited edition replacement cards feature images of stunning wrecks, sharks and manta rays – order a limited edition certification card online today.

Sharks continue to be fished faster than they can reproduce causing real fears that shark species will become extinct in the very near future.

As global shark populations continue to decline – some by more than 90 percent in the last two decades – many scientists fear the worst.

Losing these top predators has devastating impacts on our underwater ecosystems and local economies. When sharks disappear, entire food webs can shift and valuable economies become devastated.

Critical shark species – including hammerheads, oceanic whitetip and spiny dogfish – failed to receive international protection at the recent Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meetings, and Project AWARE are asking for your help in their fight to change this.

Take action for shark conservation – support sustainable fisheries, shark research, data collection and help raise shark awareness worldwide.

With your support, Project AWARE can secure protection for sharks. Your contribution will help continue fighting for sharks and sustainable ecosystem management. Thank you for helping secure a future for our underwater world.

For many shark species, time has already run out. According to a North Atlantic study by Dalhousie University in Halifax, an average of 80% of all deep-sea sharks have disappeared over the last six years – hunted, caught, finned!

Newborn sharks take decades to reach sexual maturity, and the fishing industry is catching, killing or finning them at such an astonishing rate that shark populations have no chance to regenerate.

An estimated 200 million sharks are killed worldwide a year – 500,000 every day – and most of these are killed in an indescribably cruel fashion. This is a dramatic over-exploitation of shark populations and this tampering with the largest ecosystem of the world, can never be undone. This will have far-reaching and dramatic consequences for our children and our children’s children. [Shark Project International]

If we don’t act now, the seas will die off within just a few decades and with them, 70% of the means for generating oxygen on our planet.

Films such as SharkWater aim to raise public awareness about the plight of these beautiful, but misunderstood, apex predators. The SharkWater documentary exposes the abuse in the shark-fin industry and the damage it is causing to our ocean’s ecosystems. It also uncovers government corruption supporting the industry.

Websites about Sharks Shark Conservation and Shark Finning:

• Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
• WildAid
• Shark Trust
• Shark Project
• The Florida Museum of Natural History/ American Elasmobranch Society/ International Shark Attack File
• ReefQuest Centre for Shark Research
• Shark Guardian

2010 is the 40^th Anniversary of Earth Day, an international campaign designed to raise environmental awareness on a global scale.

Underwater environments are under numerous threats including pollution, debirs, climate change, overfishing, and coral bleaching. Dive for Earth Day is an extraordinary opportunity to take action and help address the underwater issues that concern you most.

Over the last 10 years, the Project AWARE Foundation have joined this effort to focus attention on aquatic environments, and named this ‘Dive for Earth Day‘.

Why?

With the oceans covering more than 70% of the Earth’s surface and providing habitat for 90% of all life on the planet, one aim is to highlight the issues facing this particular environment, including pollution, debris, climate change, overfishing and coral-bleaching. Human activity is costing the Earth. And despite the oceans’ vast expanse, our marine debris is taking its toll on aquatic eco systems.

You can choose to make a world of difference by joining Scubafish and Narima Diving’s Dive for Earth Day event on 18th April. This is your chance to enjoy a fun day out and help raise environmental awareness on a global scale!!

What?

Dive for Earth Day: Our dive boats will be visiting Ko Haa and Ko Rok, where the staff on board will be conducting Underwater Reef Clean-ups on one dive (to help us identify the general sources of marine debris), and a ReefWatch/Coral Watch monitoring exercise on the other dive. Any of our guests are welcome to join this effort, including snorkellers. We will also be offering an AWARE Fish ID Adventure Dive at no extra cost to anyone who is interested!!!

• ReefWatch: Scubafish and Narima Diving, in partnership with Greenfins Thailand and the Phuket Marine Biological Center are bringing ReefWatch, a simple, non-invasive coral reef monitoring method, to divers who are passionate enough to make a difference.

  Scubafish and Narima Diving staff will provide a thorough briefing and short presentation on Reefwatch survey techniques, enabling us to collect valuable information to monitor the reef’s health and help us care for the reefs you visit. Volunteer divers can easily learn the method and take part in the programme recording such information as common coral types, visual percentage cover, indicator species, damage and topography of reef and track this information over time.

  Marine Biologists and government departments will use the data collected for these dive sites to help answer questions about global coral bleaching and recovery patterns as well as the overall health and risks to Thailand’s coral reefs.

• CoralWatch is an organisation who aims to provide a scientific tool which increases awareness about global warming by demonstrating one of its devastating effects. They developed a simple method for the monitoring of coral bleaching, and assessment of coral health.

  The Coral Health Chart is basically a series of sample colours, with variation in brightness representing different stages of bleaching/recovery, based on controlled experiments.

  In the field, users simply compare colours of corals with colours on the chart and record matching codes. The charts can be used by anyone, and is an ideal way for snorkellers to get involved! It can also be used as a way into the AWARE Coral Reef Conservation Specialty Course.

When and Where?

Meet at Scubafish in Kantiang Bay at 07.45am on Sunday 18th April. Free transfers can be arranged.

Anyone interested is asked to confirm participation before the day. Please contact us to register your interest before 16th April. Thank you for your support, we look forward to seeing you on the 18th April to celebrate Dive for Earth Day.

To better recognise the achievements of those PADI Dive Centres and Resorts who have made significant contributions to the growth and development of diving, PADI Asia Pacific have announced the finalists and winners of this year’s PADI Asia Pacific Member Awards program which recognises the efforts of dive operators during 2009.

The PADI Member Awards program was based on nine separate Asia Pacific regions; a system that ensured PADI Members compete with other PADI Members within their own geographical region for one of five Awards.

All PADI Dive Centres and Resorts within each of the nine regions were considered for nomination by a specially convened selection panel, who selected up to three finalists for each of the awards. A panel of PADI judges then considered all of the finalists within each region and we are proud and delighted to announce that Scubafish/ Narima Diving are the winners of this year’s Project AWARE Conservation Award for our region (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam).

The Project AWARE Conservation Award “recognises outstanding ecological achievements, with a focus on fostering environmental and cultural understanding, appreciation and conservation”.

The dive team are delighted at this achievement and obviously intend to continue these efforts whilst offering a sustainable and environmentally responsible diving experience. Scubafish are now 2 time winners of this particular award.

The Liquid Lense team would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused and will try to get things up and running again as soon as possible.

Photography courses are unaffected and will run as usual.

Feeding the fish is a bad idea for tourists, snorkellers, divers, the fish and the ecosystem.
It can:

1.Disrupt the ecology
Over time this activity can change the behviour of fish, as they learn to connect snorkellers, divers and boats with feeding time. Marine life maintains balanced ecological relationships by competing for habitat and food. In many cases, different species share space and alternate the use of that space by feeding at different times of day. Some species do not interact at all. This balance of behavior can be interrupted by the introduction of a free meal. Unnatural feeding overrides normal competitive relationships among species and hand-fed fish are especially vulnerable to predators. Sensations associated with feeding can override other associations, including predator avoidance and protection. Competition for the handout interferes with natural instincts and behaviors, which are essential for survival and cohabitation with other species.

2. Have Dangerous health impacts to fish
Many of the foods (hot dogs, rice, bread, pretzels, potato chips, etc ) commonly fed to fishes will result in health problems for these animals, which do not naturally encounter such substances. Fish cannot handle hard fats. Fish generally consume a wide variety of prey in order to stay healthy and survive. To obtain the necessary nutrients, fish have complex feeding cycles. Over time a fish conditioned to a free meal may actually stop or interrupt natural feeding patterns and become malnourished, stressed and can even die.

3.Be a Danger to Humans

There are increasing numbers of attacks and bites reported by fish feeders and others in the vicinity because marine life mistake the actions of divers and snorkellers for feeding, or have lost their natural wariness of humans. At popular tourist destinations where fish are commonly fed, there are often incidents of accidental biting. In 2005 there was a highly publicized incident of a moray eel in the Similans used to eating sausages from visiting divers one day mistaking a divers thumb for a sausage and biting the whole thing off!!! It is only where fish feeding is common that such unnatural behaviors occur.

4.Damages the Environment
Many fed species are predators whose feeding habits play a key role in the balance of life on coral reefs. By supplementing the diet of these fish we interrupt this natural balance. When grazers like surgeonfish—which normally feed on algae—are fed by tourists, the surgeonfish eat less algae. With a reduction of grazing activity by these fish, the algae is left to flourish and potentially smother the reefs. There is much evidence in Thailand that fish feeding is increasing the number, severity and rate of Crown of Thorns (COT) Starfish outbreaks. COTs are a coral reef predator which climb onto the reef and eat live hard coral, each destroying 6m square each a year. Normally there may be 1 COT in a 100m square, but outbreaks of 30+ in this space have been reported. Sergeant Major’s naturally feed on COT eggs, triggerfish naturally feed on young and adult COT, and even parrotfish accidentally eat young COT when grazing. So by feeding these fish we increase the number of COTs that survive to destroy the reef.

It is illegal to feed fish in National Parks around Thailand-please do not feed fish.