Koh Doc Mai Phuket – A small, jungle topped island which lies halfway between Phuket Shark Point and Phuket Island. It provides some of the best wall diving in the area with sea fans, soft corals and colorful marine life decorating its underwater cliffs.
Koh Doc Mai means flower island in Thai but you won’t see and flowers above water. Descend down below the surface however and the wall really comes into bloom. It is covered with sea fans, corals and zigzag clams. At night it’s especially colourful as tube worms and christmas tree worms are all out feeding in the current.
Although bigger fish are sometimes seen here (we’ve seen Leopard sharks, grey reef sharks and even whale sharks here) Koh Doc Mai is more well known for it’s excellent macro diving. It is best dived slowly with frequent stops to look in all the crevices, bush corals and gorgonian sea fans.
Look for frogfish, leaf fish, tiger tail seahorses, harlequin ghost pipefish and many species of nudibranch.
Brush away a school of glass fish and you may see dozens of white eyed moreys free swimming on the wall. This is one of the Phuket dive sites where our experienced guides really come into their own because they know where the critters live.
The maximum depth is around 30 metres although the shallows are equally as pretty as the deeper areas where less light penetrates.
There is a large cavern along one side of the island that has a smaller cave at the back. The cavern is save to dive into and look around. A dive light is a handy accessory at Koh Doc Mai to really bring the underwater colours out.
Koh Doc Mai is ideal for the Drift Dive elective dive on a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver course.So if yoou plan to gain more diving experience here in Phuket Island than you will most likely dive this beautiful dive site.
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