The Best Chance of Seeing Sharks On Your Phuket Diving Holiday
Palong Wall is the place for shark diving Phuket. Very rarely do we go here and not see blacktip reef sharks and sometimes in big numbers. If the visibility is good then you can have 10 or more in view. The sharks cruise around on the 5 – 8m deep shelf which runs the entire length of the dive site. They can vary in size from almost 2m long adults to less than a metre long juveniles.
Our guides will take you down to the bottom of the reef at the beginning of the dive to search for turtles, kuhl’s stingray, mantis shrimp and bent stick pipefish. After 15 minutes or so you’ll begin to head to shallower water to look out for the sharks.
Stick Close To Your Guide To See The Sharks
You will need to dive on the shoulder of your guide. If you follow behind then you may miss the sharks altogether so stay close. The occasional limited visibility can make spotting the sharks very difficult. It’s not uncommon for guides to point out numerous sharks only for the guests not too have seen any.
It can be a little frustrating if the sharks don’t show but this a rare event. Banded sea kraits, cuttlefish and octopus are common sightings as well as plenty of reef fish, so it can be an OK dive without the sharks. We don’t know why the sharks choose only this area to cruise around in the day but we’re certainly glad that they do.
It’s not a guarantee that we will visit this dive site on our Phi Phi trips. It depends on what the first dive (usually Koh Bida Nok) produces. If we see turtles then we’ll go to Palong wall, if we see sharks it will be Turtle Rock. Sometimes we see both on the first dive, leaving us a little confused…
We visit Phi Phi on Wednesday and Sunday.
