Shark Fin Reef is an amazing dive spotting many reef and leopard sharks while drift diving along a narrow ridge.
| Name Dive Site: | Shark Fin Reef (Hin Pae) |
| Depth: | 5-35m (16-114ft) |
| Visibility: | 10-30m (32-98ft) |
| Accessibility: | Live-aboard |
| Inserted/Added by: | lars, © Author: Lars Hemel |
| Rated: | Rated not yet |
| Specifications: |       |
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Just east of Similan island number 3, Koh Payan, sits one of the best known diving sites for spotting sharks. Shark Fin Reef is a small rocky outcrop filled with scattered rocks and boulders among submerged mountains and valleys. A small sloping reef can be found in the northeast while a more dramatic drop-off can be visited after a nice swimthrough in the south-east. Continuing further you will often end at Boulder City, a similar dive site with a huge amount of large and smaller boulders.
Shark Fin Reef or Hin Pae is named after its huge numbers of white tip reef sharks and leopard sharks. It also houses brilliant gardens full of corals and sponges, even hard corals in the southeast. Half moon trigger fish, blue faced angelfish and batfish are some common species. Many divers agree to do a drift dive here as the often strong current provides an excellent trip among this long and spectacular ridge.
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Name: thailand_liveaboards
About 500m north of Boulder City, Sharkfin Reef is the alternative last dive of a Similan liveaboard trip and it's basically part of the same submerged rocky ridge. At low tide the rocks break the surface of the water to resemble a shark fin. It is also a good site for spotting larger pelagic fish. Bumphead parrotfish, Napoleon Wrasse and Leopard sharks are all here and manta rays pass by too.
Sharkfin reef is like two different dive sites and could be dived more than once. On the northeastern side is a sloping reef of hard corals and on the south west the boulders drop off into deeper water. Swim throughs make natural passage ways from one side to the other. The northeastern reef has the more prolific marine life; look out for smaller stuff in the sand rumble between the coral patches. Leaf fish and blue ribbon eels are seen here while scuba diving or snorkeling. Nudibranchs are numerous and a good dive master will be able to point many out to you.
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