Khao Lak Weather and Jellyfish lessons

The diving on the Similan and Surin Islands has just come to an end. The Season is officially over and we are already preparing for next season. Wicked Diving is opening a new shop, much larger and easier to find and all that that entails, currently all our equipment is getting serviced, our liveaboard site is being finalized and so much more. So keep checking back...

So here is a great picture from yesterday. Beautiful scene from Khuk Khak beach. Just running around being stupid with the dog. (I'm not implying he was being stupid, just me). It is so nice to get out and really enjoy quiet time. This is such a rarity for us, as we tend to work Full-On during the season - 14-16 hour days are pretty common. Also nice to get some color!

Today is grim as we have a large storm front moving in from India. But things can't always be perfect.


Below is a picture from up close to one of the large jellyfish we get here. These ones are almost free of stingers, so it's amazing to really get close and look at the details. These incredible things (they lack central nervous systems! They are more of a collective of specialized cells) really are from outer space. Whole entire ecosystems live inside them as they travel about. Fish and crabs live under the bell (the top), small shrimps clamber around in the arms and of course small schools of fish follow them, using them as a support base for feeding. Very cool. And they do have stinger, but up inside of the bell.
These are actually from the earliest branch in the tree of life. The Cnidarians (really nice link)- they are the same group as Corals and Anemones. Weird huh? But look at it...if you turn a jellyfish upside down (and there are in fact "Upside Down Jellyfish" ) it looks very much like an anemone. they encrust that in calcium and you are looking at coral. They all use nematocysts (stinging cells) to incapacitate their prey, they all lack central nervous systems and all are so weird to watch. Okay - Coral can seem a bit boring, but I still like it...I always am amazed that they can get all this done and still not even have a brain, let alone nerves...This is the place for a great political joke....

We do have stinging Jellyfish, but they are actually very small and virtually invisible.

I am burning the midnight candle to pop our redone site up for y'all. So please be patient...we'll get 'er done!'

We are fixing up our liveaboard site as well, so please check in on that for all your questions and concerns...