Description

Last season at Kata Beach (Nov 2017 – May 2018) I posted some fairly interesting finds, one of which was, of course, the Ambon Scorpion Fish, something that is not meant to be in the waters around Phuket and something as far as I know, had not been found by anyone else here (bragging).

We did quite a few dives to get more shots of the Ambons, but boy are they hard to spot. They look like algae, move like algae, and of course, that is exactly where they like to live. They also happen to be in a spot that requires good air consumption and expert navigation to reach. So I’m not hugely surprised no one else had run into them.

We supposed that potentially it was just a seasonal fluke, maybe a few of them had washed in from waters far away and found a home they liked, we just got lucky to bump into them. We notified a few other photographers and a couple of them were also able to find the Ambons, but it was clear from the photos, everyone was finding different Ambons every time.

Based off, color, eyebrow length, and tassely bits, it seemed evident that we had stumbled upon a healthy population of Ambons, no fluke storm had brought them in, not recently anyway, they had been there a while and didn’t want to leave, and that gave us hope that this season they would still be around.

This proved true recently when we stumbled upon them again, first time the current was so bad I couldn’t position properly for a shot. This time though, we got lucky with a larger one, nice plumage and big eyebrows, he also didn’t move much at the beginning so I was able to get the shot above without much effort.

We are very happy to know the area supports a rare fish like this, though for the sake of keeping them there, I will only divulge the information to photographers whom I know won’t endanger them and their fragile ecosystem.

Happy diving!