Phuket Dive Guide : Koh Haa The Chimney
About the location and site
Nestled within the Koh Lanta National Park is one of the jewels of the Andaman Sea. It is a collection of six islands – one large island Koh Haa Yai and its five smaller islands.
Ko Haa, Thai for “five islands” lies between Phi Phi and Hin Daeng, close to Ko Lanta.
The 12+ dive sites at Ko Haa offer beautiful scuba diving and snorkelling with spectacular 25 m+ visibility, underwater pinnacles, drop-offs, walls, boulders and other caverns, inter-connected chambers and swim-throughs to explore. Ko Haa’s scuba diving highlights include the Lagoon, the Cathedrale and the Chimney
Koh Haa Island No. 1 is an excellent dive site and has amazing soft coral coverage. The south side of the island has many large boulders that create swim-throughs and crevices that are loads of fun to dive. The outstanding feature of this dive is a cavern system called The Chimney. An eerie underwater tunnel starts at 17 metres; it narrows and eventually rises all the way to a chamber at 5 metres. This makes for excellent photos and you are surrounded by cavern sweepers as you slowly ascend up.
Nestled within the Koh Lanta National Park is one of the jewels of the Andaman Sea. It is a collection of six islands – one large island Koh Haa Yai and its five smaller islands.
Ko Haa, Thai for “five islands” lies between Phi Phi and Hin Daeng, close to Ko Lanta.
The 12+ dive sites at Ko Haa offer beautiful scuba diving and snorkelling with spectacular 25 m+ visibility, underwater pinnacles, drop-offs, walls, boulders and other caverns, inter-connected chambers and swim-throughs to explore. Ko Haa’s scuba diving highlights include the Lagoon, the Cathedrale and the Chimney
Koh Haa Island No. 1 is an excellent dive site and has amazing soft coral coverage. The south side of the island has many large boulders that create swim-throughs and crevices that are loads of fun to dive. The outstanding feature of this dive is a cavern system called The Chimney. An eerie underwater tunnel starts at 17 metres; it narrows and eventually rises all the way to a chamber at 5 metres. This makes for excellent photos and you are surrounded by cavern sweepers as you slowly ascend up.
There are often curious Batfish that will follow you around or a Hawksbill turtle feeding around this area. As you reach the bottom away from the boulders there is a field of beautiful soft corals and if you wait a few minutes hundreds of fusiliers will swarm around you! The very shy Tigertail Seahorse is often spotted, hiding along a small wall at 22-24 metres. Enormous shoals of snapper congregate near the tops of the many boulders. Nudibranchs, Morays, Lionfish, and Clown Fish are also plentiful here. The south-west side of the island is a spectacular wall dive, with plenty of action in the blue.