Richelieu Rock has earned its reputation as one of the world’s premier dive destinations, with many articles listing it as one of the top ten dive spots in the world and it’s easy to see why.
Situated in the North Andaman Sea, off the western coast of Thailand, Richelieu Rock forms a captivating underwater pinnacle. Its peak emerges at low tide, while its base rests at a depth of 33-35 meters. The dive site is located in the Surin National Marine Park, but around 14km from the main Surin Islands. There is nothing close by, when you swim away from the pinnacle all you’ll see is sand, this is why it is a haven for marine life, they need somewhere to live. The rock is in the shape of a horse shoe and is made from limestone, where the jagged layers make a great hiding spot for small crustaceans.
Divers are drawn to Richelieu Rock not just for a single dive, but for multiple excursions. While day trips typically offer two dives, liveaboards maximize the experience with three to four dives in a day.
There is a mooring line that you can go down, making it a bit easier for those with ear troubles or if there is current. As you descend, you can quickly tell why it is so famous, there are fish everywhere and I mean everywhere. There are so many fish that sometimes you need to wave the fish out of the way so that you can see the rock. The rock itself is covered in soft and hard corals, making it a great nursery for baby fish. Small glass fish cover the rock and get in your way, but you will soon see why they try and stay so close. There are many giant trevally, bluefin trevally, long faced emperors and rainbow runners that swim around together hunting the glass fish. They are so used to the divers that they will swim around you like a mob, and get so close it can make it hard for you to see your buddy. Once they have spotted a target they all rush in together for the hunt and it is an amazing sight to see!
There are some outta rocks that you can swim to, but these can be quite deep. Here you have a chance to see some jenkins whiprays and cobias, these guys are a little more afraid of divers, so you should keep your distance if you want them to stick around. As you come back to the main rock, you can easily swim amongst the five-lined snappers, yellowback and luna fusiliers. There are many different types of reef fish to look out for; groupers, angelfish, butterflyfish, anemone fish, anthias and so much more.
But this is also a great place for the macro photographers with many gems hidden around this rock. You have a chance to see ornate ghost pipefish, banded pipefish, harlequin shrimp, seahorse, frogfish and lots of nudibranchs.
You should take a torch with you, inside the small crevices you have a chance to see; boxer shrimp, dancing shrimp, zebra moray, white-eyed moray, fimbriated moray, giant moray and the large brown marbled groupers can be seen hiding away in the bigger cracks
In the center of the horse shoe is usually where visibility is at its best. There is a small channel where you can swim through, where it opens out to all the life that lives in the center. In the middle you can encounter; nudibranchs, urchins, anemone fish, crown of thorns, octopus, cuttlefish, peacock mantis shrimp, free swimming giant moray eels and so much more.
As the dive site is out in the open, it can be prone to current. But due to its shape, it will be easy to hide you from the current, but be careful as all the other divers on the site will be doing the same. Sometimes you can get all divers on one side of the rock trying to avoid current. Whilst you’re on the outside of the rock taking in all the beauty, you should remember to look out into the blue to see anything big passing by. This is a common location for whale sharks to visit throughout the season, some will swim around the rock several times and others will pass through, leaving only a handful of divers witnessing it. But nothing is guaranteed, you have got to be lucky. The current is what brings them in, so you have to take the good with the bad
No one knows the real reason as to where Richelieu Rock originally got its name from, but there are a few stories that the dive guides will tell you on the boats, so you can come to your own conclusion. This is a site that can be enjoyed by everyone, snorkelers and divers. You can carry on diving here whilst doing your safety stop and still see many fish. There is a huge abundance of life here, from the bottom to the top, it doesn’t matter where you are on the rock, you will not be disappointed.
SCUBA Level: Beginner – Advanced
Temperature: 28-30°C/82-86°F
Visibility: 15-30 m/49-100 ft
Depth: 0-35 m/0-115 ft
What to watch out for
As mentioned before, there is nothing else close by for fish. So sometimes on Richelieu you can be greeted with some nice surprises and I’m not just talking about whale sharks. You can have eagle rays passing by, turtles coming to snack on some of the bubble coral, blacktip reef sharks and one year we had a giant grouper call Richelieu its home for about 2 weeks before disappearing back into the deep. Richelieu Rock is most definitely a dive site that you need to tick off your list.
