Off the west coast, the flora and fauna of the Andaman Sea are characteristic of the Indian Ocean. Off the east coast, in the Gulf of Thailand, they are characteristic of Indo-Pacific seas. Coral reefs off both coastlines have been little surveyed, but they support at least 400 species of fish and 30 kinds of sea snake. Bottlenose dolphins, and sometimes whales, are found in Thai waters. The gentle dugong, or ‘sea cow’, is increasingly hard to find among the sea grasses of Phang Nga, Phuket, Trang and Satun provinces. Thailand’s coral species number almost 300, with the Andaman Sea boasting an even greater diversity. Intact reefs, however, survive only in areas far from human habitation, such as the vicinity of the Surin and Similan islands.
The Andaman Sea is deeper, clearer and more saline than the Gulf. It has coral reefs that are more interesting and widely distributed, extending from Ko Tarutao Marine National Park on the frontiers with Malaysia to the reefs and shoals of Burma’s Tenasserim region.
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