Enjoy diving at Phi Phi Island

Anemone Reef, or Hin Jom as it is known by the locals lies about 27Km East of Chalong Bay, close to the King Cruiser wreck and Shark Point and consists of a single pinnacle approximately 80M across lying in the sand at 25M at the deepest point. The shallow portions of the site are carpeted in an abundance of sea anemones giving it its name. The pinnacle does not break the surface but reaches just 5M at the shallowest point.

This is in fact the part of the reef that the King Cruiser crashed into in1997. The East side of the pinnacle forms a gentle slope to the sand while the west is a steeper bank and in the south a small channel is formed between the main reef and a small rock outcrop. A mooring exists near the channel in the South and there is another one to the North on top of the shallow 5M pinnacle. Currents are usually not strong, running either North to South or vice verca. Dives begin by descending down the side of the pinnacle and then the dive may be conducted either clockwise or anti clockwise, depending on the current, round the rock. By slowly spiraling up throughout the dive one reaches the top of the pinnacle at 5M for the safety stop. As the site is relatively small it may easily be covered in a single dive so swim slowly to maximize the chance of seeing the rarer creatures that are often present here.

Marine Life consists of mostly soft corals and anemones in the shallower portions of the dive giving way to sea fans, barrel sponges and a scattering of hard corals like table and staghorn corals closer to the sand. Many species of anemone fish inhabit the anemones, huge shoals of snapper circle the pinnacle and yellowtail barracuda are often present just off the reef. Groupers, oriental sweetlips and soldierfish are literally everywhere and periodically the reef is covered in glassfish. There are also rarer denizens of the reef to be found here like ornate ghost pipefish hiding in the soft coral, tigertail sea horses, frogfish and even zebra moray eels. Leopard sharks are common in the sand surrounding the pinnacle as are Kuhl’s stingrays