Aow Leuk

Max/Average Depth: 16/5m       Visibility:10-20m             Skill:Beginner

Features: Shallow shore dive site offering  a gentle slope down to sea

Marine Life: Pufferfish, Cleanerfish, Butterfly fish, Angelfish, Chevron barracuda.

A perfect site for introductory dives and beginner courses, it offers flat surfaces, no

strong currents and lots of shallow sand to get comfortable on. For those already

comfortable the beautiful soft coral near shore offers, porcupine puffer fish, barracuda

and lots of anemone fish among the abundant corals.

Angelfish playing on the reef                          Clownfish hiding inside his anemone

Max/Average Depth:  40m/20m        Visibility:  10-30m            Skill Level:   Advanced

Features: This large pinnacle begins at 14m and goes down to approx. 35 meters.  This place is where you go to see the big stuff like Tuna, Barracuda, King Mackerel, Queen Fish, Grouper, and Sharks.  This pinnacle is cover with anemone and offers a ton of great underwater wildlife for the diver. On the good day, this is the best place to catch glimpse of the giant Whale shark.

Marine Life: Angel fish, Groupers, rays, Trigger fish, Tuna, Barracuda, King Mackerel, Queen Fish, Grouper, Morey eels, shrimp and Sharks.

Max/Average Depth:  28m/16m        Visibility:  10-30m            Skill Level:   Advanced

Features: A maze of swim throughs, canyons, caverns and caves created by giant boulders. An assortment

of corals can be found including lettuce coral and staghorn coral.

Marine Life: Angel fish, Groupers, Yellow box fish, Sting rays, Trigger fish/nests.

Green Rock is an excellent dive site boasting many swim throughs across a variety of depths. Follow the shore

line along at 10-12m or head out toward the rock for which its named to reach depths of up to 28m. Divers

can expect good visibility but very strong currents on occasion as well as a host of nesting, and

sometimes defensive, Trigger Fish. Whale Sharks have also been spotted here on occasion.

A lone trigger fish feasts on some coral.                     The light effect from a cave at Green Rock

Max/Average Depth: 26/20m             Visibility: 10-25m           Skill: Open Water+

Features: Rocky pinnacles that stick up and is particularly pleasing to the eye. There you can see lots of Scorpion fish and if you are really lucky you might see a sea turtle swimming about.

Marine Life: Hawksbill Turtle, Snappers, Sweetlips, Porcupine pufferfish, Angel Fish, Butterfly fish, Banner fish, Trigger Fish and more.

Hin Wong Pinnacle

Max/Average Depth: 40/17m             Visibility: 15-20m           Skill: Open Water+

Features: Tabletop rock formation covered with a variety of hard and soft corals and features the best place on the island to check out big Sea Fans.

Marine Life: Hawksbill Turtle, Snappers, Sweetlips, Porcupine pufferfish, Juvenile Boxfish

Another of the deeper sites available Hin Wong pinnacle offers  individual rock formations

spread out over 20m of depth with an abundance of marine life living on the corals.

An Emperor Angelfish                                        Gorgeous harp coral between 2 pinnacles

Japanese Gardens

Max/Average Depth: 14/10m                      Visibility: 10-15m                       Skill: Beginner+

Features: Hundreds of hard and soft coral formations creating the impression of a large

oriental garden.

Marine Life: An abundance of small coral fish and nudibranches

Another perfect beginners site offering shallow sand at 0-5m, the site moves out into an

oriental garden between 5-12m. For slightly more experienced divers a small swim through

is available on the east and an extremely small maze of caves for experienced cave divers only.

Blenny Fish in soft coral                                                 Ianthena  nudibranch

King Kong

Max/Average Depth: 18/14m     Visibility: 10-30m            Skill: Beginner+

Features:  Tabletop rock formation covered with a a variety of hard and soft corals

including lettuce, table, barrel sponge, Christmas tree worms, black sea urchins and

sea cucumbers.

Marine Life:  Porcupine fish, Puffer fish, Moray Eels, Titan Triggerfish, Parrot fish and

if you get lucky you may get to catch the resident Lion Fish.

King Kong offers divers a beginners arena to play around in. Close in to shore , it offers

a gentle sloping dive site with some strong seaweed coral at the deepest point.  The

Lion fish is often located  at the far side of the rock at about 10m. Territorial trigger fish

are found in the shore shallows on the same side.

The Pacific Lionfish                                                      A Porcupine puffer fish gets cleaned

Max/Average Depth: 24m/18m                  Visibility: 10-25m                 Skill: Open Water +

Features: This is a shore dive featuring a lot of great swim throughs.  There are many great rock formations to check out and some wonderful marine life.

Marine Life: Angelfish, Morays, Pipefish, Crabs, Butterfly fish, YellowTail Barracuda, Harlequin Sweet Lips, Sting Rays,Trigger fish, Unicorn fish, Yellow Box fish,and more.

Max/Average Depth: 12/8m                  Visibility: 15-20m                 Skill: Open Water +

Features: Sandy bottom with coral bommis.

Marine Life: Angelfish, Morays, Pipefish, Butterfly fish, Banner fish and more.

Max/Average Depth: 14m/10m                  Visibility: 10-30m                 Skill: Open Water +

Features: A beautiful green bay with a gig coral garden.  Diving here may show you sea horses, Harlequin Sweet Lips, big schools of yellow striped fusiliers, Trigger fish, and the occasional turtle.

Marine Life: Angelfish, Morays, Pipefish, Sea Horses, Harlequin Sweet Lips, big schools of Yellow-Striped Fusiliers, Trigger fish, Butterfly fish, and the occasional turtle.

Max/Average Depth: 22m/18m                  Visibility: 20+m                 Skill: Open Water +

Features: Big coral pinnacle covered with anemone and massive sea cucumbers.  Here you may catch a glimpse of Scorpion fish and the adolescent Box fish.

Red Rock

Max/Average Depth: 16/8m                  Visibility: 10-30m                 Skill: Open Water +

Features: Large boulder near shore spiralling upwards and a 10m+ cave to explore nearer

the shore.

Marine Life: Angelfish, Morays, Pipefish, Crabs, Butterfly fish and Chevron Barracuda

The site is a pleasant shore dive leading into a shallow bay with lots of small to medium

sized colourful  fish playing in the coral. Divers will remember it for the long winding cave

available to swim through with mulitple entraces and exits

Two exceptional cave photographs from inside the giant swim through

Sail Rock:

Max/Average Depth: 45/30m                  Visibility: 15-35m                Skill: All levels

Features: Huge rock chimney with an amazing vertical swim through that descends from

8m to 18m.

Marine Life: Large pelagics, Groupers, King Mackerel, Kingfish, Tuna, Whale Sharks,

Manta Rays, Reef sharks

Amongst the gulf of Thailands premier dive sites, Sail rock is slightly further away from

Koh Tao than the rest. Usually accessible on special full day trips, the dive is definitely

worth the trip. Massive marauding schools of fusiliers, parrotfish and barracuda are regularly

broken up by hungry tuna and trevally or the shadow of a whale shark.

A majestic whale shark                                                A school of fusiliers scattered by a diver

Sairee Reef

Max/Average Depth: 7/5m       Visibility:10-20m             Skill:Beginner

Features: Shallow shore dive site with beautiful coral and many fish.

Marine Life: Butterfly fish, Angel fish, Parrot fish, Rabbit fish and the lucky diver might catch view of a turtle.

Shark Island

Max/Average Depth: 26/13m       Visibility: 3-30m      Skill: Intermediate+

Features:  Huge boulders and rock formations, stunning hard and soft corals.

Marine Life:  Containing both Titan and Yellow Margin triggerfish, longfin banner and

batfish, blue spotted stingray as well as a resident turtle.

One of the more diverse dive sites around the island, Shark Island offers divers the

opportunity to float around at five metres and enjoy the beautiful soft coral garden

or head out into the depths and search for rare Leopard sharks at 20m+. The resident

turtle is often found swimming at 10-12m, be aware of sudden very strong currents

around the edges of the island. Whale sharks are also available here form time to time.

Divers float over the shallow reefs                         The turtle passes lazily by

Southwest Pinnacle

Max/Average Depth: 33/20m         Visibility:  10-20m       Skill: Advanced

Features: A selection of pinnacles with varying sizes and heights and an assortment

of corals including giant fan corals, barrel sponge, round mushroom coral and cushion stars.

Marine Life: A wide variety of species including giant groupers, scorpionfish, great

barracuda as well as occasional whale and whale shark spottings.

Another of Koh Tao’s deeper dive sites. Southwest Pinnacle offers divers large schools

of barracuda, marauding giant groupers as well as frequent whale shark sightings. Visibility

varies greatly depending on the season but is among the islands best when its clear.

Bigger fish are found at 30m+                                    A school of small yellow-tail barracuda

Max/Average Depth: 18m/14m                  Visibility: 20+m                 Skill: Open Water +

Features: Three wonderful pinnacles right in a row.  This is a great site for catching view of a lot of great fish but the biggest plus for this site is that it is home to one of the funniest fish . . . The Clown Fish. 

Quote from Finding Nemo

• Marlin: If this is some kind of practical joke, it's not funny, and I know funny. I'm a clownfish.

Max/Average Depth: 25m/16m                  Visibility: 20+m                 Skill: Open Water +

Features: Three large coral covered pinnacles rich with anemone.  This is a veritable natural fish aquarium. White Rock is one of the most diverse dive sites featuring a TON of beautiful marine life.  There are fish EVERYWHERE around these rocks and will be sure to please everyone from beginning diver to advanced.  Also a terrific place for night dives with vibrant colors and great visibility.