Welcome to our guide to the fine underwater life you can see where we go diving in the Gulf of Thailand.
Click on the names or photos until you find what you want, or use the “search” function.
The photos were all taken when scuba diving or snorkelling in the waters around Koh Phangan, by the Chaloklum Diving team! As the guide has recently been updated (& in a hurry too!) there are sure to be mistakes; please let us know.
The most primitive life form & the base of the food chain, supplying a massive network. Inc algae, sea weeds & grapes.
39 Photos
A simple life-form but a fascinating range of shapes, sizes & colours. High species diversity & complex associations with other organisms; good going for sedentary filter-feeders!
Corals, Anemones, Corallimorpharians, Hydroids & Jellyfish; a massive range of invertebrates with an incredible variety of life forms. They are all radially symetrical with tentacles around a central mouth, a primitive gut & stinging cells.
Often confused with nudibranch, these small beasts can crawl along the bottom & occasionally swim by undulating their bodies.
Some tube dwelling beasties that come out to feed, plus the crawling, poisonous bristleworms .
Prawns/Shrimps, Lobsters, Crabs & Barnacles. A diverse group that all have an external skeleton, jointed limbs, antennae & compound eyes.
Nudibranch/Sea Slugs, Sea Snails, Bivalves, Squid & Octopus. Great biodiversity & a whole load of fascinating beasties.
One of the last unexplored lifeforms; we’ve several bryozoans around Koh Phangan that don’t appear in any of the few reference guides available. If only we had the time…
9 Photos
Literally "spiny skin". All featuring 5 part radial symmetry, an internal calcium carbonate skeleton & a hydraulic system which controls their tube feet.
Chordates all possess some kind of backbone; this covers a vast range of life-forms; from the primitive sea squirt up to (so-called advanced!) Homo sapiens!
