Chumphon Pinnacles is only a 7-minute speedboat journey away from Koh Tao, and it’s regarded as one the best dive sites around the island!
The entire top of the pinnacle is carpeted in Magnificent Anemones, full of prancing Pink Anemonefish. Crabs, Shrimps, Scorpionfish and White-Eyed Moray Eels hide in its many fissures. The far South is home to a solitary Pacific Lionfish. Large Marbled Groupers skulk around the deeper regions. As you descend over the side of the pinnacle, you will feel like you are on a wall dive – lots of holes and cracks to peer into; Tube and Whip Corals; Blue-Green Damsels, Weibel Butterflyfish, Bannerfish and Blue-Ringed Angelfish dancing before your eyes, until you reach the sand at 30m.
Chumphon Pinnacles is perhaps the most popular dive site in the area. Because of its depth –14 to 40 meters– Chumphon Pinnacles is only suitable for Advanced divers and divers that are comfortable in deep water or are looking to increase their experience
Packed with marine life, you may even find sharks cruising by at Barracuda Rock (25m and below). Chumphon Pinnacle is also known for its wonderful conditions, boasting a visibility of up to 30m that will allow you to make the best of your underwater time!
Off to the Southwest of the main pinnacle is another large collection of rocks known locally as Barracuda Rock. Dropping down to 40m, you will be diving amongst swirling schools of Rabbitfish, Snapper, Juvenile Yellow-Tailed Barracuda and Fusiliers, watching as the hunting Trevalliers dart in and out of this veritable feast!
Whale sharks also visit Chumphon! Sailfish can be seen hunting here and huge walls of Chevron Barracuda will often block your view of the pinnacle. It’s certainly a dynamic open ocean site where you can see the hunters as well as the hunted.
