The Last Eden (Part 3)
Action Asia (1998)

Emerging from obscurity

The opening of the Mergui Archipelago came about in an unusual way. In the late 1980s dive-based tourism started booming in Phuket. Some of the bigger operators invested in liveaboard dive boats and began exploring the potential of offshore sites like the Similan Islands and Richelieu Rock. As they went further a field, they encountered pristine sites with magnificent coral, abundant reef fish and even big pelagics. One of the major discoveries was the Burma Banks, a series of sea mountains some 60 kilometers northwest of Phuket. The mountains rise to within 12 meters of the surface – dive-able depth – and although they are not rich in coral, they seem to be a veritable magnet for big pelagics. The site soon earned a worldwide reputation for "shark attraction" dives. Technically, the Burma Banks are in international waters, but they are close to the coast of Myanmar and the Burmese government claims possession of them. At first the government seemed to turn a blind eye to the dive cruises, and through the early 1990s more operators started visiting the Burma Banks. The islands of the Mergui Archipelago now looked invitingly close. If the Burma Banks had such an abundance of marine life, what, these operators wondered, would be found in the unknown and virtually untouched waters of Mergui?

One of the pioneers of scuba diving in Phuket, Matthew Hedrick, embarked on a long patient process of negotiation in an attempt to get access to the archipelago and permission to run commercial cruises. Then, in 1995, the Burmese authorities put a stop to the trips to the Burma Banks, and hopes of access to the Mergui Archipelago faded. But, surprisingly, Hedrick won through, and in November 1996 the government of Myanmar granted permission to the first cruises into the area since World War II. The first legitimate cruise to the Mergui Archipelago took place in January 1997. The doors at least were open.