Myeik tide times

Myeik — also spelled Mergui — is a city of approximately 170,000 people on the Andaman Sea coast of southern Myanmar, at the northern gateway to the Mergui Archipelago. The city occupies an island in the Myeik (Mergui) estuary, connected to the mainland by a causeway, and its harbour is the primary commercial port for the lower Tanintharyi Region. The harbour handles cargo, fishing vessels, and the liveaboard dive boats that access the Mergui Archipelago to the south.

The tidal regime at Myeik is mixed semidiurnal with a large spring range of approximately 3.5 to 4.5 metres — among the larger ranges in Southeast Asia. The Andaman Sea is a semi-enclosed basin that amplifies the tidal wave propagating from the Indian Ocean; the northern Andaman Sea and its coastal inlets experience tidal ranges significantly higher than the open Bay of Bengal. The estuarine mudflats around Myeik are exposed for hundreds of metres at low water springs, and the tidal current in the Myeik channel is strong enough to be relevant for vessel navigation — commercial vessels entering the harbour must account for the tidal stream when manoeuvring.

The Mergui Archipelago, which extends south of Myeik to the Thai border at Kawthaung, contains over 800 islands across approximately 36,000 square kilometres. Most islands are uninhabited, forested to the shoreline, and surrounded by reefs that have had minimal fishing pressure by international standards. The liveaboard season runs from November to April, aligned with the northeast monsoon that brings clear water, stable winds, and manageable sea conditions. The southwest monsoon (May to October) generates rough conditions across the archipelago and most liveaboard operations suspend during this period.

The Moken people — semi-nomadic sea nomads known in Burmese as Salon — have inhabited the Mergui Archipelago for centuries. Historically, Moken families spent the monsoon season sheltering in island coves and the dry season moving through the archipelago by kabang (traditional Moken boat), fishing, gathering sea cucumbers and shells, and trading. The kabang is a dugout canoe with extended bow and stern and a palm-thatched roof — a functional dwelling as well as a vessel. Government resettlement policies have established permanent Moken villages on some islands and on the mainland, reducing but not eliminating the traditional nomadic cycle. Sea cucumber and fish are dried on the boat decks and sold to Chinese traders who meet the kabang at designated islands.

For the fishing community based at Myeik, the large tidal range is a practical constraint on harbour operations. The fishing fleet works the coastal and offshore grounds during the northeast monsoon, returning on the flood tide to enter the harbour approaches safely. Gill-net fishing on the tidal flats south of the city targets the prawns, squid, and reef fish that move with the tidal stream.

Bird life on the mudflats around Myeik in the northern winter migration includes large wader assemblages: whimbrel, bar-tailed godwit, terek sandpiper, and great knot use the extensive low-water flats as feeding grounds. The mangrove creek mouths are hunting grounds for white-bellied sea eagle and brahminy kite year-round.

Predictions on this page come from Open-Meteo Marine, a gridded global ocean model. Accuracy is typically within plus or minus 45 minutes on timing and 0.2 to 0.3 metres on height — model-derived, not from a local gauge. The local tide authority is the Myanmar Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH).