Koh Lipe & Tarutao · Thailand · Coral garden · Wall
Pattaya Corner
Coral garden and short walls, 12 to 25 m, strong on macro
Area photo: fototaube · CC BY-SA 2.0
One of the corner reefs on Ko Lipe's own coastline, running between 12 and 25 m over coral gardens, short walls and rock formations. It is a reef-fish site first, with parrotfish and butterflyfish over the coral, but the reason to dive it slowly is the macro: seahorses, nudibranchs, ornate ghost pipefish and moray eels in the rock.
Where it is and how deep
6.4785° N, 99.3080° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
The corner is a reef in three parts: coral gardens on the shallow ground from about 12 m, short walls dropping below them, and rock formations in between. Twenty-five metres is the floor, so the dive is a matter of picking a level and working along the coast rather than following one feature down. Reef fish are everywhere over the coral, parrotfish and butterflyfish in numbers.
Slow down at the wall and the site changes character. Seahorses hold on in the coral, nudibranchs crawl the rock, ornate ghost pipefish hover in the growth, and moray eels sit back in the cracks. It is ground that pays for a torch and a close look rather than for distance covered, and at these depths there is still no-stop time in which to do it.
Marine life and season
- Nudibranchs
- Macro critters
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Fair | Off-season | Off-season | Off-season | Off-season | Fair | Good | Good |
Season follows Koh Lipe & Tarutao: November-April is the dry-season diving window and February-April the best of it; from mid-June to mid-October only the Pak Bara speedboat runs and visibility falls toward 10 m.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Pattaya Corner?+
The site runs from about 12 m over the coral gardens to 25 m at the foot of the walls, so it fits comfortably inside recreational no-stop limits.
What can you see at Pattaya Corner?+
Coral gardens and rock formations with parrotfish and butterflyfish over them, and macro life down in the rock: seahorses, nudibranchs, ornate ghost pipefish and moray eels.
Sources
- Pattaya Corner - Scubago — Scubago
More dive sites in Koh Lipe & Tarutao
Reef
Walk-in beach reef, 5 m deep, where courses start
Reef
Soft-coral outcrops and boulders, mantas in the current
Wall
Wall and coral garden on Ko Lipe's own coast, 12 to 30 m
Pinnacle
Mild-current ridge at 5 to 18 m with feeding hawksbills
Pinnacle
Soft-coral dome from 6 m to a sandy base at 12-18 m
Reef
Cascading granite boulders from 5 m down to 25 m
Wall
Crevices and overhangs down a 10 to 30 m wall
Reef
Broken coral ground and sand patches, 5 to 25 m
Similar dives elsewhere
Branching hard corals from 10 m to sand past 30 m
Fan corals on the deep face, staghorn thickets in the shallows
A 40 m drop-off on the west side, with 20 to 30 m of visibility
Morning light on a shallow coral garden off Ko Bangu