Scuba Diving in the Surins: First Dive at Richelieu Rock

Day 2 of our Surin Island liveaboard with Wicked Diving was all about Richelieu Rock.  Discovered (well, as a diving site) by Jacques Cousteau, the site is a standalone rock/reef in the middle of the open ocean.  We were lucky since our dive boat reached the mooring site first, so we had prime access to the dive site all day.  Good thing, too, because it was beautiful and we were happy to have time to explore it thoroughly.

A cresent-shaped limestone pinnacle, Richelieu Rock is gorgeous: absolutely covered in purple soft corals and more anemone waving in the currents than you can imagine.  Plus, since it's in the middle of nowhere, it's got some currents roiling around, bringing the big fish in, too.

Our first dive was pretty early morning, so the lighting in the first few minutes was a bit dark.  It quickly brightened up to show the pretty purple hues.

Highlights of the video:

• Some of those pretty purple anemones I described, complete with skunk anemone fish
• A big, creepy, but beautiful electric purple crown-of-thorns starfish
• A tiny yellow spotted boxfish
• Lionfish, floating around
• Selfie!
• Some cornet fish and a couple of lion fish buddies
• A couple of creepy little white-eyed moray eels poking their heads out of the reef
• So many anemones... like a shag carpet!
• Tim + titan triggerfish
• Lionfish on the move, being chased by a grouper
• A couple of those white-eyed moray eels, free swimming along the reef
• Christmas tree worms!  So cute.  I love how they pull their little colorful spiral antennae in when you come near
• A pretty white feather duster worm
• A quick glimpse of one of the many nudibranch we saw (those things are hard to capture on the GoPro... so small!)
• Crocodile needlefish on the surface (my Google search resulted in lots of images of injuries inflicted by this fish... who knew?)
• Schools of yellow snapper in the crevices of the rock
• Tim swimming into the current with the damselfishes
• Pretty peacock grouper
• Fusiliers, snapper... so many fish!
• Towards the end, in the better light, you can really see the purple carpet of soft coral and anemone.  Amazing!
• Climbing the mooring line back up to the boat at the end of the dive!