The HTMS Kood sinks into Pattaya Bay in September 2006.

The Royal Thai Navy is prepared to sink as many as five wrecks to promote Pattaya as a wreck-diving tourist destination, according to Chesta Jaipiem, a Navy private-sector liaison who attended last month’s joint Pattaya-Tourism Authority of Thailand-Navy seminar on diving in Pattaya.

According to Robert Camp, the owner of Pattaya’s Adventure Divers who attended the Nov. 28 event at the DusitD2 Hotel, public agencies want to work together to preserve Pattaya’s marine resources, promote the city as a diving destination centered around wrecks and promote the city’s dive operators to spur tourism.

To do this, the Navy is prepared to start sinking additional ships as artificial reefs. The first could be sunk by the end of 2011 and, should public- and private-sector organizations work together, as many as four more over the next 10 years. (more…)

From left, Royal Thai Navy Captain Chettha Jaipium, Dhorn Dhamrongsawasdi, advisor to the director of the Marine and Coastline Resources Department, Hans Ulrich, PADI Thailand Regional Manager, Niti Kongkrut, director of Tourism Authority of Thailand’s Pattaya office, Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome, Serm Phenjati, consultant for DusitD2 Baraquda Pattaya and Mikamin Charujinda, director of the Marine and Coastline Resources Department.

Pattaya city officials, the Royal Thai Navy and the Tourism Authority of Thailand have joined forces to market Pattaya as a premier wreck-diving destination and with the formation of a new dive operator club and the sinking of another shipwreck within two years.

Tentatively called the Pattaya Dive Club, the association will promote all the city’s dive companies through a joint Internet website that will be advertised worldwide with funds from both the city and the dive operators.

At a Nov. 28 seminar at the DusitD2 Hotel in Pattaya, Pattaya Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome, TAT Pattaya office Director Niti Kongkrut, PADI Thailand Regional Director Hans Ulrich, Navy Capt. Chettha Jaipium and Dhorn Dhamrongsawasdi, advisor to the director of the Marine and Coastline Resources Department discussed ways to development a tourism plan to bring divers to Pattaya. (more…)

When the CMAS-backed Thailand Diving Association came up with the idea last year to sink a bunch of aluminum airplanes and helicopters, the near universal non-TDA opinion was it was a pretty stupid idea. Not only would the corrents in Bang Tao Bay play havoc with the site, but metal itself would quickly deterioriate before coral for the artificial reef could take root.

Turns out they were right. The TDA now admits the “Coral Reef Squadron” is 90 percent destroyed by fishing trawlers and currents. (more…)

Diving the HTMS Kood wreck. (Photo: Andrew Jennings)

City officials are promising better patrols and a new buoy for one of Pattaya’s most-popular scuba diving sites after markers anchored by the city and local dive operators to locate an undersea shipwreck repeatedly have gone missing.

The HTMS Kood, a World War II-era landing craft intentionally sunk off nearby Koh Sak in 2006, has become a thriving artificial reef. But technical divers who use the wreck for courses and fun dives increasingly have been frustrated by the disappearance of buoys marking its location 31 meters below the surface. (more…)

The famous “Samesan Hole” was featured recently on stylish blog WebEcoist in a feature on some of the world’s deepest and most dangerous dive sites. It’s a bit of a misnomer, as the site notes the sites are only dangerous if you don’t have adequate technical dive training.

Similar to Valhalla Missile Silo, the Samaesan Hole in Thailand is a 90-meter-deep former military ammunitions dump. Technical divers come here to practice on trimix. It’s called an ‘explosive dump ground’ on marine charts because it contains unexploded bombs.

Ballsy divers have to bring multiple lights since sunlight doesn’t penetrate the depths, and the currents are extremely strong. It’s said to be fascinating but unfortunately, no one seems to have taken any photos.

(more…)