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Only open to tourism since 1997, Myanmar offers some of the best diving in the world. It is relatively untouched and you will encounter far fewer divers than on the very popular Andaman Sea dive sites in Thailand.
Big fish sightings and rare macro life reward the divers that venture into this remote diving destination.

Diving in Burma (Myanmar)
Myanmar is not totally unexplored. Diving liveaboards have ventured from Thailand since the 1990s. However, the Burmese coast-line (including the Mergui Archipelago) is vast and there is much still waiting to be discovered.
Initial exploration trips by a number of Phuket dive operators in the early 1990s were the Burma Banks. This series of underwater mountains are around 90 nautical miles northwest of the Similan Islands. They became famous for close encounters with sharks!

Further inshore, the Mergui Archipelago consists of more than 800 islands and is home to some of South-East Asia’s best diving. The distance between the dive sites can be challenging for liveaboards, with your standard 8-day Thailand-Burma liveaboard trip covering a distance of over 1000km! Day trips to the best of Burma’s diving is not practical for day-trips, which keeps the dive sites safe from the kind of mass-diving tourism that can be associated with the Similan Island dive sites in Thailand.

A ‘user’ fee is charged by the Myanmar authorities to enter and dive the Mergui Archipelago. All boats enter and depart via Victoria Point (Kawthaung), just west of Ranong in Thailand. All boats must enter and exit through this border point.
Reputation dictates that Burma Banks are the best dive sites in Burma. However, the Burma Banks are no longer the main reason to visit the area. Longline fishing, trawling and even dynamite fishing has taken its toll on the Banks. While this is a sad reality, the Mergui Archipelago itself is still in fantastic shape, and relatively untouched.

5 top reasons to scuba dive in Burma – Myanmar
1. Fewer divers! The area is immense and while growing in popularity, the region is still unspoiled and remote enough to keep the crowds away.
2. There are fish and other marine life on Burmese dive sites that you cannot find anywhere else on Earth!
3. The Mergui Archipelago is one of the last uninhabited archipelagos in the World.
4. Burma’s diving is easily accessible from Thailand (Phuket). You can fly to Phuket Thailand and you do not need a visa to enter Burma via a scuba diving liveaboard from Thailand.
5. Healthy corals, frogfish, rays and the occasional whale or nurse shark! What more could you want?

Dive Sites of Burma
There are several dive sites in Burma that are world-class. Black Rock, Western Rocky and Shark Cave should all be included in this category! Vast amounts of soft corals, hard corals and sea fans adorn these dive sites.

Some dive sites are not to all tastes. Macro-life predominates some of the inner island dive sites for example, and macro-diving is not for everybody. Harsh currents can also be encountered on these dive sites around full and new moon phases. However you are guaranteed the dive sites to yourself, which is a rarity in the world today.

There are three types of diving environments in the Mergui Archipelago:
• Shallow, inshore with reefs fringing the islands. Visibility is often poor but there is plenty of diverse marine life.
• Offshore fringing reefs. Visibility is often better and the coral much healthier.
• Pinnacles and small rocky islands which rise from deep water and attract larger marine life such as sharks and rays.
The Mergui Archipelago is home to some of the most diverse and interesting marine ecosystems in the world.

Will I see sharks in Burma?
There have been at least 9 species of shark reportedly seen in Burmese waters by divers. These include bull, tiger and nurse sharks.
Honestly, sharks are in serious threat around the world. Burma is no different. Nurse sharks and gray reef sharks are still seen from time to time. More commonly you may see a leopard shark or a whale shark, especially in the months February to April.

What else will I see diving in Burma?
From our own diving experience/stories of Burma in the last decade, divers have seen plenty for their logbooks!

Recorded over 16 days diving in Burmese waters, October to May 2008, by our own Burma/Thailand liveaboard specialist, there were White Tip Reef Sharks, Grey Reef Sharks, a Nurse Shark, Leopard Sharks and two Whale Sharks on the dives. This gets better when you consider there were also Eagle Rays, Blotched Fantail Rays, and Manta Rays there as well! You can continue with the Sea Horses, Pipe Fish (Robust, Ornate Ghost, White Bend Stick among several others), Nudibranchs, Spanish Dancer, Lobsters, and Napoleon wrasse.
All this marine life and on dive sites so untouched! Burma starts to sound very attractive as a diving destination.

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