Chumphon Pinnacle

Why has Chumphon Pinnacle been Koh Tao's top dive site since 1991?

Koh Tao, 21 square kilometers in the Chumphon Archipelago, has lived off diving since the early 1990s: Big Blue Diving has been taking its divers to Chumphon Pinnacle since 1991. The site is named after Chumphon province, on the mainland coast opposite, not after the island. For fifteen years it was the meeting point of the gulf's bull sharks, which have since become rare; the whale sharks still come. Today it is the most requested site on the island, and the busiest in high season, hence the appeal of the dawn departures.

What can you see on a Chumphon Pinnacle dive?

The classic dive goes down the line to the main pinnacle, heads for the base at 30 meters for the giant groupers and the sand where zebra sharks sleep, then spirals back up the walls, through the schools of barracudas and batfish, to the carpet of anemones on the top. A second dive explores the satellite pinnacles, to the north or south, deeper and less crowded, where giant trevallies hunt. The safety stop is done on the line, eyes on the blue: that is where you see the whale shark coming.

How do you photograph the Chumphon Pinnacle anemones?

At 14 meters, the anemones look brown; a light or a strobe brings back their pink, and the pink anemonefish pose without fleeing. Use wide-angle for the barracuda columns, shot from below against the light, and for the batfish that come very close to divers. Photograph titan triggerfish from a distance: they charge when you get near the nest. For the whale shark, keep your distance and let it pass; the shot is a side view, in daylight.