Tanote Bay Dive Site, Koh Tao: Catamaran, Depth & Map

Tanote Bay (Aow Tanote, Ao Tanot) is a large, pretty bay on Koh Tao's east coast, just north of Aow Leuk, with a pale sandy beach that swimmers and snorkellers love. As a Tanote Bay dive site, it stands out for mixing natural reef with man-made structures, which is rare on the island.

In one dive you can visit a sunken catamaran at about 18 m, concrete cubes you can swim through, reef balls and a coral nursery, and a healthy coral reef around a granite rock in the middle of the bay. Depths of 5 to 18 m and gentle slopes keep it friendly for Open Water divers.

Usual route: Boat divers drop near the catamaran at about 18 m, circle the wreck, then move up past the reef balls and cubes to the main reef, ending in the shallows around the rock. Shore divers can enter from the beach. Drawing based on local dive briefings: approximate, not to scale and not for navigation. Your guide's briefing on the day always comes first.

Getting to Tanote Bay

Dive boats reach Tanote in roughly 15 to 40 minutes, depending on the operator and where they leave from. It is often paired with Lighthouse Bay or Hin Wong Pinnacle.

You can also enter from the beach, which makes it one of the few Koh Tao sites that works for shore diving, snorkelling and freediving as well as boat trips.

Diving Tanote Bay: the route

Boat divers usually drop near the catamaran at about 18 m, circle the wreck, and then move up past the reef balls and concrete cubes toward the main reef. The dive ends in the shallows around the granite rock, with coral heads rising to about 5 m that are handy for safety stops.

Average depth settles at around 12 m as you return toward the main reef. If you enter from the beach, you reverse the pattern and build up from the shallows.

Underwater layout

Tanote Rock: a big granite outcrop mid-bay, with coral reef along both flanks.
Main reef (north): barrel sponges, boulder coral and brain coral at about 5 to 14 m.
Concrete cubes (south): encrusted with coral and forming swim-throughs for divers with good buoyancy.
Reef balls and coral nursery: at about 10 m, part of a conservation project.
Sunken scooter: around 12 m on the southern flank, guarded by a very aggressive damselfish.
Catamaran: about 18 m on sand, southeast of the rock.

Marine life at Tanote Bay

The catamaran is a macro hot-spot. A large Jenkins whipray often rests under the hull, banded pipefish and cleaner shrimp live along it, and spider crabs perch on the whip coral. Small frogfish and octopus turn up here too.

On the reef, hundreds of yellowtail barracuda and titan triggerfish are regulars, along with butterflyfish, angelfish, anemonefish and longfin bannerfish. Sea turtles and banded sea kraits are common, and juvenile blacktip reef sharks visit the shallows at certain times of year.

The man-made reef, the catamaran and training

The catamaran is a small vessel lying on the sand just off the main site. No date or origin is recorded for its sinking. The concrete cubes, reef balls and coral nursery frames come from reef-rehabilitation projects in the southern part of the bay.

Together they give fish more places to hide and coral more places to grow, and they are a good reason to bring a torch and take your time.

Tanote Bay is a busy teaching site. Open Water and Advanced courses use it, the catamaran suits navigation and specialty training, and the concrete cubes are a fun place to practise buoyancy. Because the beach is just a short swim from the dive, the bay is also popular with snorkellers and freedivers.

The granite rock in the middle of the bay has a rope ladder and is a favourite for rock jumping, so keep an ear out for boats and swimmers when you come up near the shore.

If you can only pick one east coast dive for a mix of reef, wreck and macro, this is a strong candidate.

Conditions and best time to dive

June to September is the best period, although conditions are generally good through much of the year. The north-east monsoon from October to December is the weak spot.

Current is generally light, with some movement around the wreck and reef. Visibility swings widely with season and recent weather, so ask your guide on the day.