Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 64
I encountered this huge whale shark,
Rhincodon typus
, in clear waters off the
coast of Thailand. Clusters of remoras,
Remora albescens
, are attached to its chin by the
suckers on the tops of their heads. This shark is a plankton eater, and is moving north into the
ever richer waters of the Andaman Sea.
The visibility was poorer here than in the blue waters further south in
Thailand. But the worsening visibility was more than compensated for by
the sheer diversity on display. Every square inch of the reef was covered by
orange and green cup corals, sponges, soft corals, and sea fans. The soft coral
growth was so plentiful that predators of the corals such as the wentletrap
snails were more numerous than I had ever seen them. I swam forward and
touched one of the rare patches of bare rock on the reef, thinking as I did so
that the hermetic land of Myanmar was the only one of the world's countries
that I had touched for the fi rst time while underwater.
Camoufl aged scorpionfi sh waited patiently for incautious passersby on
many of the reef's ridges, the only giveaway to their presence being their
