The Beauty of Sail Rock and Why it is so Important

The Phangan Scuba Drivers are driving round India in a tuk tuk at the moment all for Sail Rock.

We thought we would remind you why they are doing this.

Emma used the knowledge of her friend Alois who regularly dives at Sail Rock to describe the beauty of it and why it is so important to protect it.

(Alois is the one doing the flip!)

In his own words...

'You have this big pinnacle in the middle of nowhere, as far as you can get from the islands pollution. This pinnacle attracts a lot of living creatures.

What’s interesting is that it’s a whole eco system on its own which helps regulate what’s happening in the gulf. I guess the Core sea people could tell you more about it.

So you have a massive population of reef fish, juveniles and crustaceans, things that clean big fish, also a lot of sediment and plankton in the water.

All these small little things, all around the rock, attracts bigger fish to be cleaned and feed. These bigger fish attract predatory fish like trevally, barracuda, tuna and other different species in huge quantities.

Then if you’re lucky a few whale sharks might pass by and out in the blue away from our noisy bubbles you have the bigger stuff hunting. Like marlin which are just amazing to look at. Some people have seen dolphins and sharks.

You can find all sorts of atmosphere underwater depending on the conditions, visibility and also the light, I had a dive when the storm was hitting the surface, it was amazing.

It’s also very easy and simple conditions to dive in and the dive site is quite large. You have this one big rock and all the other smaller ones attached to it.

There’s always a way for your dive to be worth it, while you get your habits there, you would figure out there’s always more to explore and that’s it’s always different. That’s why I like it so much'.

You can help protect Sail Rock by donating to The Phangan Scuba Drivers Adventure here on their donation page and read more about it below.

Underwater Photography by Stefan Follows