Here's the official blurb:

Thailand's Underwater World explores the Thai Kingdom’s enchanting aquatic environments that are usually hidden from human eyes. Through Chris Mitchell's captivating text and Jez Tryner’s stunning photography, experience the beauty and sometimes bizarre nature of Thailand’s marine creatures and their habitats. Discover the mysteries of Thailand’s ocean life as engaging chapters reveal each creature’s secrets, from the giant but gentle whale shark and the impossibly graceful manta ray to the tiny but vividly coloured nudibranch. See exclusive images of the USS Lagarto, the lost World War II submarine that was finally discovered 70 metres deep in the Gulf of Thailand 60 years after she disappeared. And find out why future generations may never get to see the beauty of Thailand’s marine environment if action to preserve this hidden world isn't taken soon.

Manta Rays chapter opening spread from the book Thailand's Underwater World

In the introduction, I explain why we created the book:

Thailand is blessed with some of the best reefs and most spectacular marine life in the world, which are both accessible and affordable – a rare combination. As such, for many people, whatever their nationality, Thai- land is where they first truly fall in love with the ocean. I know that’s what happened to me. And that sense of wonder about Thailand’s underwater world – the wow moment – is what I wanted to capture in this book.

This is by no means a comprehensive marine-biology identification manual of the thousands of fish and coral species in Thailand’s waters, or a blow-by-blow guide to dive and snorkel sites. Thailand’s Underwater World is instead a celebration, a Greatest Hits, of the marine life that has continually amazed both Jez and me over 20 collective years of diving in Thailand. It’s an attempt to convey something of what we’ve seen underwater and bring it back for others to enjoy and marvel at, whether or not they have any intention of getting in the water themselves.

The book also includes a chapter on the rediscovery of the American World War II submarine USS Lagarto featuring photos taken 70 metres down by my friend Ayesha Cantrell, who's written about diving the USS Lagarto on Divehappy before.

Coral Reefs chapter opening spread from the book Thailand's Underwater World

Thailand's Underwater World is published by Marshall Cavendish and is initially available in Asia. The international publication date is 31st March 2012 and you can sign up to be notified on Amazon.com and pre-order on Amazon.co.uk. Currently the book is available direct from AsiaBooks.com with a 30 per cent discount.

There's also a Facebook page for Thailand's Underwater World - Like us to get further updates on the book's international publication dates. We've got a fledgling website too at ThailandsUnderwaterWorld.com

We've had some great initial responses to the book, including praise from best-selling author Steve Jones, DIVE magazine editor Simon Rogerson and one of my own personal heroes, Tim Ecott, who wrote the diving classic Neutral Buoyancy and who I interviewed here on Divehappy several years ago.

“Intelligent, topical and beautiful: this book is a timely and important
reminder of why Thailand’s marine life should be protected.”
Tim Ecott, author of Neutral Buoyancy: Adventures in a Liquid World

“An inspiring evocation of underwater Thailand...”
Simon Rogerson, editor of DIVE magazine

“...a joyous and vivid celebration of Thailand’s reef life...”
Steve Jones, author of Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise

If you can help us get the word out about Thailand's Underwater World by sharing or Liking this post, we'd really appreciate it. And if you get to read the book, we hope you enjoy it.

Whale shark and diver from the Sharks chapter of the book Thailand's Underwater World

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYwxJDPr-Pc

In two inspired video parodies, the team at Master Divers on Koh Tao in Thailand (including my friends Ayesha and Wilco) have recreated two classic tunes underwater - complete with rewritten lyrics.

The pioneering Queen track "Bohemian Rhapsody" was their first outing for the Thailand aquatic treatment, complete with air guitar underwater, and has recently been followed by a spectacular remake of Robbie Williams' "Let Me Entertain You" - I'm still getting over the shock of seeing Wilco in full Kiss makeup on the ocean floor.

Both vids are great work from start to finish - proof if proof be need be that scuba divers do have a sense of humour...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPvSJZURbbo

White Manta - Singapore and Thailand from Peter Walker on Vimeo.

See more of Peter's work at PeterWalker.com

The Wreck of the Suddhadib from Peter Walker on Vimeo.

Easily the most famous shipwreck within Thailand that's accessible to recreational divers is the Hardeep, sunk at the end of World War II by the Japanese near to the modern day Thai city of Pattaya. Despite lying on its side in around 25 metres of water that are often subject to strong currents and poor visibility, the Hardeep exerts a fascination on most divers who visit her due to her still-beautiful shape on the sea bed, especially the ship windows that now form its ceiling and send cathedral-like shards of lights into the ship's interior. (You can see my photos of the Hardeep / Suddhadib for an idea of what I mean).

My friend Peter Walker was one of those who fell under the Hardeep's spell, and set out to find out as much as he could about how the ship came to sink during the skirmishes of World War II. Along the way he discovered the real name of the ship wasn't the Hardeep at all but the Suddhadib, along with several other surprises that would have been lost to the march of time had Peter not made the effort to track down eyewitnesses of the Suddhadib's demise and peice together how the ship met its end. This half hour documentary is a fascinating insight into one of Thailand's forgotten histories. You can see more of Peter's work at PeterWalker.com

Yellow snapper schooling, Richelieu Rock, Richelieu Rock, Similan Islands, Thailand

The Similan Islands have a special place in my diving history - they are where I did my first liveaboard back in 2003 and they have exercised a particular fascination on my imagination ever since. I did a great 7 day Similan liveaboard in April 2010 and decided to go on the exact same boat, the MV Flying Seahorse, and do the same trip as this year, taking in effectively a Best Of Thailand Diving itinerary. MV Flying Seahorse runs 7 day Similan liveaboard trips departing from Koh Lanta (with pickup available from Koh Phi Phi too if you need it). From Lanta the boat heads out to explore Southern Thailand's dive gems like Hin Daeng and Koh Haa and then heads to the Similans. So within a week you see all of Thailand's best dive sites (although Koh Tao's Chumphon Pinnacle and Pattaya's Hardeep wreck should arguably be on that list too - but being on Thailand's East Coast, it's not possible to see them too).

There are only a few boats doing this 7 day itinerary and usually they break it in two between the Similans and Southern Thailand as well. If you wanted a classic 4 day Similan Liveaboard trip departing from Khao Lak, I'd recommend MV Dolphin Queen for budget diving, or Pawara or White Manta if you have a bigger budget, and SY Oriental Siren if you want full luxury diving.

Me and my friend Rob enjoyed our 7 day trip in 2010 on MV Flying Seahorse so much we wanted to do it again and Peter, the affable Austrian boat owner, gave us a good deal for this 2011 trip. However, directly after I did the 2010 Similan trip last year, I got several reports from friends working in the Similans about coral bleaching happening across the reefs. As such, when I headed out this year, I was very worried about what I was going to find. The closing of several dive sites across Thailand in early 2011 - all of which were minor sites for divers with the exception of East of Eden in the Similan Islands - was proof that the bleaching was real. The near-universal misreporting of those closures - which tried to insinuate that somehow Thailand's main dive sites were being shut down - is typical of the trend to be overly dramatic in describing Thailand's marine park decline.

The Similans, like all of Thailand's dive sites, have undoubtedly waxed and waned in the near decade I've been diving them. There are numerous external, human-made factors effecting them which unarguably must be allieviated - rising water temperatures and overfishing chief amongst them. However, it would be very unfair to say the dive sites of the Similan Islands are not worth seeing anymore because they've had a punishing time in the last few years. On the evidence of what I saw on this trip during May 2011, the Similans remain a spectacular dive destination, even in an off-year - and I hope my photos show a little bit of that. The coral bleaching is real, but has also started to recede, and it's not like every dive site is now a white coral wasteland.

All that said, I'm under no illusions that time is running out for the reefs in Thailand and across Asia. It's quite possible this is the last decade that divers will be able to enjoy diving the Similans because by 2020 the incredible soft and hard corals and abundant fish life might truly be in terminal decline - but it's not there yet. As such, any chance to see it before it goes should be taken.

I joined the MV Flying Seahorse for the last trip of the dive season in May 2011. As mentioned previously, the trip is broken up into 2 parts - For the first two days, the boat heads out and explores the southern Thailand dive sites around Koh Lanta of Koh Haa, the deep sea pinnacles of Hin Daeng and Hin Muang (both of which are famous as manta and whale shark hotspots) and Koh Bida.

Koh Haa has long been one of my favorite dive sites in Thailand, five gigantic rocks in the ocean gathered together that form a natural lagoon inside and attract all manner of marine life on the outside of their walls too. The soft corals here are beautiful.

Hin Daeng is another personal favourite, a legendary hotspot for big stuff. While we saw no manta rays or whale sharks this time, there is plenty of other fish life especially yellow snappers and bright red soft corals to keep divers entertained along with great visibility. A week after we dived here, two mantas and a whale shark were spotted here on the same dive. Hin Muang is also pretty, a deeper, longer pinnacle that has numerous cracks and crevices to explore.

Koh Bida is a horseshoe shaped island which provides shelter for a lot of creatures and is popular with dive boats from nearby Koh Phi Phi. The viz here is often not to great, but the mix of smaller fish life and abundant hard corals makes up for it.

Then there was a quick return trip to Lanta on the afternoon of the second day to pick up more guests who have opted to just do a five day trip which goes direct to the Similans. It's also possible just to do the first two days and get off the boat again once back in Lanta. It's nice for guests to have this flexibility, and the two day option is great for divers who have never been on a liveaboard to give it a go and see if they enjoy the experience.

The boat overnights on the first and second night within the shelter of Koh Haa's lagoon and provides for a nice night dive there on the first night. Day 3 sees the crossing to the Similan Islands, with morning dives at Koh Bida and Koh Doc Mai on the way before an afternoon of cruising and a night dive within the Similan Marine Park at Anita's Reef.

Koh Doc Mai is nothing particularly special, but makes a pleasant wall dive en route to the Similans. I skipped the night dive at Anita's Reef because I was hoping to dive it in the day time the following day as it has a fantastic bommie covered in a profusion of corals but unfortunately it wasn't to be.

The next day we had what at first seemed some bad news. Although our boat had got prior clearance to enter the Similan Marine Park at the beginning of May when the Park is technically closed, (and so has hardly any other dive boats around), the local marine police wouldn't accept the clearance and wanted exorbitant per-day fees for the boat to stay within the Similan Park. Luckily we'd already dived the famous Elephant Head Rock site before encountering the marine park police - it's a dramatic site made up of massive underwater boulders resting together which provides many swimthroughs and at deeper depths some beautiful coral.

Having negotiated to stay for one day in the Park, we headed to Koh Bon in search of manta rays, as this is the one dive site where they turn up more regularly than anywhere else. We were rewarded for our patient waiting in the water with a brief but unmistakable sighting of a big manta ray cruising in from the blue to Koh Bon's reef. No photo unfortunately - I couldn't get near enough.

On Day 5 we arrived at Richelieu Rock, widely regarded as Thailand's best dive site, and spend all day there with a magical four dives. Richelieu is not within the Similans Marine Park boundaries and so we could stay there as long as we liked - and given it's such a great dive site and we had perfect calm weather conditions, having to exit the park early actually worked out for the best for us. With the excellent weather conditions we overnighted at Richelieu and dived there again in the morning before heading to Boonsung Wreck near the coast. I hadn't dived this wreck since before the tsunami in 2004 - back then it was a magnet for fish but I'd heard the tsunami had literally ripped the wreck apart. This turned out to be true but the fish still seemed to call the wreck home as there was an amazing amount of different big schools all weaving in and out amongst each other, making the wreck difficult to see at some points.

After the elation of Boonsung we had a long cruise during the afternoon and evening back to Phuket, where we picked up some supplies and then overnighted. The following morning we headed to the King Cruiser wreck, but by this point the weather had turned against us with the sky very dark and the seas very rough. Viz on the wreck was poor with strong currents, and the weather was unrelenting as we did our two final dives at the shelter of Koh Phi Phi's Palong Wall. I had a memorable close up encounter with a turtle which provided a suitably fitting end to a great trip. Despite all the (largely justified) concerns about the state of the reefs in the Similan Islands, there is still a lot of beauty to be seen underwater here - all the more reason for efforts to be redoubled to protect it for future generations. I'll certainly be heading back out there again when the next dive season begins in November.

Thanks to Peter and the crew of MV Flying Seahorse for their help

Note: this interview was conducted in January 2010. In February 2011, Ai went on to win the officially verified Guinness Book Of Records' female World Record for Longest distance in a cave on a single breath-hold dive with a monofin - 100 metres on a single breath! See the five minute documentary video at the end of the interview to see Ai's record-breaking attempt.

Click any of the photos in this story for bigger versions. There are more photos not shown here in the Divehappy Palau Diving photo gallery

World Record Holding Freediver Ai Futaki freediving with video camera

“I feel like I am part of the ocean when I am freediving”. It’s that love of freediving that has led 29 year old Ai Futaki to attempt to break one of the world records for female freediving only 3 years after she was first introduced to the sport. Originally from Ishigawa in Japan, Ai spent three months in Mexico in training to make her attempt on the record in September 2009 at Cenote Azul, the Blue Hole. While Ai was attempting to set a new female world record by swimming to a depth of 60 metres on a single breath, in the event she only managed to reach 45 metres, still an extraordinary achievement which led her to break the existing female Asian freediving record.

While Ai is undaunted by the failure of her first attempt and is already pondering her next opportunity to try and break the record, she is refreshingly down to earth about her motivations. “I wanted to break the world record to make a name for myself” she smiles. “I learnt a lot from the process this time. I was ready technically, but mentally it was really difficult. To freedive to 20 or 30 metres is quite easy, but once you go beyond that you have to fight yourself, reassure yourself. Even though I had gone to 55 metres on one breath while I was training, when it came to the record attempt I could not get there again.” That training itself is intense, involving six to seven hours of static breath holding in the swimming pool and “apnea walks”, walking whilst holding your breath, along with breathing exercises inspired by yoga and a strict diet.

World Record Holding Freediver Ai Futaki being a Japanese tourist underwater

The specific record Ai was trying to break was Constant Weight No Fins, which means swimming down the line of a rope hanging to a specified depth with no fins and wearing a weight belt. This differs from the image of freedivers made famous by Luc Besson’s movie The Big Blue, where freedivers descend holding on to a sled and then return either by swimming themselves or propelled by a balloon –disciplines known as Variable Weight and No Limits respectively. Attempts on the world records for each of these disciplines are held each year at the AIDA World Freediving Championship, which in 2010 was held in Okinawa, Japan at the beginning of July. It’s the first time the World Championship will be held in Asia and sees the stars of the freediving world congregate in one place. It was at the previous AIDA championships in the Bahamas in 2009 that Ai’s Asian female record was broken only a couple of weeks after she had set the new limit, showing how fierce competition is within freediving circles.

Ai will attend the championships, not to make another record but as one of the official videographers, a role she has also played at the Koh Lanta Freediving Festival held every February in Thailand. During the Okinawa festival Ai will film the freedivers underwater during their endurance tests, freediving alongside them so as to shoot the footage rather than using scuba gear. Operating a camcorder underwater is difficult enough when breathing from a tank, but to do it whilst only on a single breath brings a whole new level of complexity. When it comes to interacting with the underwater world though, Ai is convinced freediving has a great advantage. “You only have one to two minutes to film before you have to come up. But you can get much closer to the animals because you are not frightening them with the noise of scuba gear.”

World Record Holding Freediver Ai Futaki with Mares freediving fins

Ai’s love of freediving videography came about almost as soon as she learnt to freedive with Apnea Total, a renown freediving school based on Koh Tao, Thailand. Thanks to the encouragement of Apnea Total co-owner Monica Ganame, Ai took her previous experience as a scuba videographer in Mexico and explored how freediving could change it. “I had hit a wall doing the video with scuba diving. I wanted to move into making documentaries but the window of opportunity is so small. Everyone is making movies using scuba. When I was filming with freediving I thought, “Wow, this is it!” I can get a completely different perspective from scuba videographers – they can bring huge cameras and do many tricks, but with freediving you can’t do that so it’s more challenging, more pure, more honest.”

Ai Futaki freedives at Blue Corner, Palau amongst the sharks and fishes

Those who have seen Ai’s freediving videos of her time in Komodo, Indonesia (just search for her name on YouTube.com) can see that there is a distinctly different atmosphere to her films – as well as being a skilled editor, Ai gets much closer to the creatures she encounters because she becomes part of their environment. By way of example, Ai explains one of her favourite filming moments. “When I was freediving in Okinawa there was a school of giant trevally directly below us. When we made our descent, they headed away from us but then they came back because we had no bubbles, which made for a really great shot in the video. When you are on scuba, you always just see the fish run away! But with freediving, you stay still, they come back to you. That’s amazing. When I go on scuba, I feel like a stranger.”

Ai Futaki freedives with a napoleon wrasse at Blue Corner, Palau

Whether there is a demand for underwater films shot solely through freediving remains to be seen, but Ai hopes to release a DVD later this year collecting her short films so far and to get sponsorship and find likeminded souls to create something more ambitious.

As for a date about when she will attempt the world record again, Ai has decided to take a different approach. “I will try again, but next time I'm not going to rush it. If I feel like it is not right and I'm not going to do it. It's far too stressful. When I feel good about it, I will take it.”

[This article was originally published in the March 2010 issue of Scuba Diver AustralAsia magazine]

Here is the video documenting Ai's successful attempt to get the female World Record for Longest distance in a cave on a single breath-hold dive with a monofin - 100 metres on a single breath! More info at DeeperBlue.com

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcWAkmpFPQ0

I'll write up a full trip report about what it's like diving Pattay's shipwrecks in a few weeks, as I'm scheduled to go back there in January as well. Basically, for photographers, it's very hard work - visibility was down to around 2 metres and there was a lot of silt in the water. Conditions apparently improve January through March. Anyway, we got this one shot on the Hardeep which I am quite pleased with - it was cleaned up through the Photoshop skills of Bob at Aquanauts so that was a great help.

Hardeep Wreck, Pattaya - Hanging Coral

Hardeep Wreck, Pattaya - Hanging Coral

clownfish-thailand-koh-haa

Clownfish at Koh Haa in Thailand

As part of World Oceans Day on June 8th, a group of volunteer Thai divers in Pattaya took part in a clownfish release into the city's waters. Led by Serm Phenjati, a consultant for the Dusit D2 Baraquda Pattaya hotel, the group of divers were joined by hotel staff to assist the in the clownfish release.

The clownfish were bred in captivity at Percular Farm, which is Thailand's first and largest clownfish nursery, set up with the specific intention of trying to boost clownfish numbers in Thai waters, as many have been taken by illegal poaching for the aquarium trade. One hundred of the clownfish were then taken to Sattahip pier. Before they were released, thirty divers entered the water to locate sea anemones to which the clownfish could be introduced and so make their new home, which would offer them protection from their many natural predators.

As Serm told the Bangkok Post: ''We can't just open the bags and release them from the surface of the water,'' Serm explained. ''By the time they reach the sea anemone if released from the surface, most would be eaten up by bigger fish. Additionally, while releasing them the divers must also look out for other clownfish that live around the sea anemones because clownfish are very protective and tend to attack outsiders.''

Hopefully this will become a regular event, as the art of reintroducing clownfish into the wild in Thailand is still in its infancy. There have been several clownfish releases on Koh Lanta as well, pioneered by Pimalai resort, the island's first 5 star hotel.

For more information on World's Ocean Day, visit www.theoceanproject.org

CNNGo - Thailand's Underwater Sights

CNNGo - Thailand's Underwater Sights

CNN launched a new website called CNNGo.com a few months ago that covers life in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Mumbai and Shanghai. As part of their current Relax Asia series, I wrote an article about how laid back scuba diving can be, especially in the beautiful waters surrounding Thailand. This story is also illustrated with underwater photos I took myself, which is the first time I've had my own dive photos running alongside my copy. (Usually I write the words and the pix are provided by another photographer). So I am quite chuffed that I've finally got good enough at taking underwater pictures to get them published, although I have still got a lot more to learn and practice to get some really great shots. You can read the full story here.

lagarto-fah-thai-article

Deep Mystery - USS Lagarto in Fah Thai Magazine

fah-thai-deep-sea-detectives-200

This article was first published in Fah Thai magazine, Oct-Dec 2009. The article appears here in a slightly different form.

Fah Thai is the inflight magazine of Bangkok Airways, Thailand's boutique airline.

To see more of my stories for other scuba diving magazines, visit my Scuba Diving Magazine Stories page.

3rd May 1945: even though the war in Europe is days away from ending, the war in the Pacific rages on. The USS Lagarto submarine meets with the USS Baya in the Gulf of Thailand to take on supplies. The two ships separate, agreeing to stay in radio contact. The Lagarto and its crew of 86 submariners is never seen or heard from again.

60 years later, almost to the day the Lagarto disappeared, the lost sub is rediscovered 70 metres down in the Gulf, far below the depth to which most scuba divers can dive. For a hardy few, like Richie Kohler of the History Channel's Deep Sea Detectives show, deep diving is a way of life, with all the rigorous training, special equipment and danger that entails. Driven by a fascination with the histories and mysteries of lost ships, Kohler traveled halfway round the world from his native New Jersey in 2007 to dive the Lagarto and film a forthcoming PBS underwater documentary to honour the crew of the lost sub and analyse how it met its fate. "I was hired by the Wisconsin Maritime Museum along with John Chatterton to do photodocumentary evidence of the wreck, having documented submarine wrecks before," explains Kohler. "We can apply a forensic approach looking at it. We're technical divers, deep divers with an expertise in shipwrecks. We were shooting hi-definition movie footage using rebreather technology which allowed us to stay underwater for 3 hours at a time."

Chatterton and Kohler's previous experience documenting submarine wrecks is already the stuff of legend, thanks to Robert Kurson's bestselling book Shadow Divers. The book documents the duo's six year quest to identify a German UBoat and its crew that was inexplicably discovered off the New Jersey coast. The book gained a huge audience because it deals not only with high adrenalin deep diving but also with the history and human drama of trying to understand the events that led to the Uboat's demise and give the families of the dead crew closure. While on the Shadow Divers book tour Kohler first heard about the Lagarto. "An older woman came over to me and says she was especially touched by the story, " he explains. "Her father had been lost on an American submarine in the Gulf of Thailand and she wished that somebody would tell her what happened to him. Almost a year later she emails me this amazing story about how her dad's submarine had been discovered by two British divers."

Those two divers, Jamie MacLeod and Stewart Oehl, had sunk their life savings into buying their own boat, MV Trident, so they could pursue their dream of deep wreck diving from their base on Koh Tao. They'd purposely set out to discover the Lagarto, working out an ocean floor survey plan from the last place where the submarine was seen, taking on supplies from the USS Baya. Both assumed it would take them several years to find the Lagarto, but they had a spectacular stroke of luck.

Thai fishermen can occasionally be persuaded to part with the GPS marks of where they find the best fishing -- and as fish congregate around wrecks, this can lead divers to wholly undiscovered ships on the bottom. Stewart having acquired a new set of marks for 500 Baht, Jamie drew the short straw of having to be the first one to go down and see what was there. There's no guarantee that checking a virgin set of marks will produce something interesting -- it could be a pile of stones or debris or, more dangerously, a submerged pinnacle covered in lost fishing nets which can ensnare and trap an unwary diver -- "the billowing wall of death" as Richie's wife, Carrie, also an accomplished technical diver, calls it.

"I followed the shot line down to 70 metres," recalls Jamie, "and suddenly, I realized that the line had landed just in front of the bow, so when you get to the bottom, you're right in front of it, right in front of the bow and looking up at it. It's unmistakable. The Lagarto is sitting upright on the bottom so when you're in front of it it's like it's coming towards you. You never forget it."

"It was the best 500 Baht I ever spent," laughs Stewart.

Because the Lagarto is a war grave, Jamie and Stewart had made contact with the Lagarto US Submarine Veterans of WWII Association to ask their permission to search for the submarine and to keep them aware of their ongoing efforts. When they broke the news that they had discovered the Lagarto, the US Navy sent a team on the USS Salvor to verify the wreck themselves, while the footage from Kohler and Chatterton's documentary provided definitive evidence that the Lagarto had been sunk by a depth charge dropped by the Japanese minesweeper Hatsutaka. For Kohler, there was also a vital task he had to carry out on his first dive to the Lagarto: "As I was heading out to Thailand I received a phone call from Nancy Kenney. Her father died when she was 3 years old on the Lagarto - she has nothing to know him by but the black and white photos she has of him. She knew that the diving was very dangerous and we would be filming the documentary. What she wanted me to do was rap on the side of the hull and say to her dad that her and her mum were OK and that they loved him very much. And that I did for Nancy."

After the flurry of international publicity that surrounded the Lagarto's discovery, the submarine has been left in peace. Only Jamie, Stewart and the US Navy know the exact location of the Lagarto, and there will only be the occasional custodial dive on her in the future. For Kohler, coming to Thailand led him to not only discover the Lagarto, but to also appreciate the Gulf as a still largely unexplored haven for wreck divers. He recently returned to lead an expedition of US technical divers, which was such a success that it could become an annual event. As he explains, "This is true adventure. This is a last frontier when you go down there and you don't know what to expect. Everytime you poke your head into these wreck doors you just don't know what you're going to find."

Previously:

• Diving On The USS Lagarto - a first hand account by Ayesha Cantrell with photos of the Lagarto
• Return To The USS Lagarto - Ayesha's account of one of the custodial dives on the Lagarto, with new Lagarto photos