Where: Koh Jabang / Tarutao National Park / Thailand
When: April/2017
Water temperature: warm
Visibility: Good (more than 10 meters)
Main attractions: Soft corals and feather stars
Duration: approximately 20 minutes
This snorkeling session was part of a day trip from Koh Lipe to some of the Tarutao National Park islands. It was called “Plankton and Sunset Trip”, and has this itinerary: Koh Jabang, Koh Hin Ngam, Koh Yang, and ended at Koh Adang shore, where we saw the glowing plankton.
The first view when arriving at the snorkeling site wasn’t very impressive, the site was delimitated by ropes and buoys, surrounded by longtail boats. There was a good number of people with life jackets, hanging themselves on the ropes, like an ants bridge.
When we entered the water, it started to get interesting. At far I started to see some colorful soft corals, like 5-8 meters deep.
You can see the diversity of colors just by snorkeling:
But if you already practiced some skin diving (dive while holding your breath), it will get even better:
On the surface above one of the biggest rock pinnacles with lots of soft corals, there is a rope with people hanging on. So if you intend to skin dive, pay close attention to them when returning to the surface!
Now let’s see the living creatures I found that day:
Carnation Coral _ Dendronephthya sp.
These are the highlight of Koh Jabang, the diversity of its colors (variating from red, pink, orange…) and large numbers make the pinnacles look like they are full of flowers. Take a look at the colors it can get:
Green Table Coral _ Acropora latistella
There was a few of these on Jabang, and they do a very beautiful contrast with the carnation soft ones.
Green cup coral _ Tubastrea micrantha
The green cups were there at a good number too, this was a big adult one.
Vase Coral _ Turbinaria mesenterina
Another interesting coral example, I only found this one at that time.
Feather Stars _ Crinoidea Class
The feather star is from the same phylum than the sea urchins, starfishes, sea cucumbers… Some can be attached to a substrate until full adult form when it becomes free swimming.
They are very fragile, so please don’t touch them, it could hurt or even kill it.
Here are the examples I saw there:
Blackspotted sea cucumber _ Pearsonothuria graeffei
Can you believe the sea cucumber in the middle of this photo is at the same phylum than the feather star on the left? One feature that makes them at the same “gang” is that the adults have a radial symmetry (if you slice it in radial pieces like a pizza, the pieces tend to be similar, more usually in five points/pieces).
This was the first time I encountered this sea cucumber species, and his black mouth tentacles are very nice. Looking this photo again I realized there were 2 more in the background. Good camouflage job, sea cucumber!
Indo-Pacific Sergeant _ Abudefduf vaigiensis
There were several numbers of these fishes, but not that “Sergeant frenzy”, most common in some snorkeling and dive sites. I saw some at the surface and at mid-water.
Moorish Idol _ Zanclus cornutus
This was the only one I saw there, and it catches our attention for its colors and that sickle-like dorsal spine.
Lemon damselfish _ Pomacentrus moluccensis
Found almost always when searching near the green table corals, they live in small aggregations. The hard coral branches serve as a shelter for hiding from their predators (or anxious snorkelers).
Two-spot banded snapper _ Lutjanus biguttatus
Another fish that is often seen at Andaman sea, but here I saw just a couple of them. They mostly appeared to me at shoals in shady places, so the fact that there was not much shade at Jabang may be the reason why I only saw a few.
Overall: The snorkel/skin dive was very nice, but I have to say I enjoyed Koh Hin Ngam and Koh Yang more, mainly because there were too many people at the same point over Jabang´s soft corals.
More places of the “Plankton e Sunset Trip” from Koh Lipe:
World Thru Mask 