Conservation - THAILAND Monthly Update for Conservation Programme - December 2007

Thailand Marine Conservation Project - December 2007

As I have been away for most of December, this update has been partly written by Marie, our Field Coordinator, who has obviously had far more presence on the project than me this past month. December has been very busy with celebrations and trips for the conservation team in Ao Nang. Two major events were the His Majesty the King's birthday which we celebrated with scientists and other volunteers from the Phuket Marine Biology Centre (PMBC) and a trip to Klong Naka in the province of Ranong where we camped in the rainforest.

His Majesty the King's eightieth birthday was a very important day in Thailand and all public organisations and many private businesses celebrated one way or another. In particular, many organised conservation related events as the King has always shown great concern for the environment during his long and popular reign as monarch. Consequently, we teamed up with PMBC to participate in a reef rehabilitation project at Viking Cave in Phi Phi National Park. The aim was not to regenerate whole new reefs, but to enhance existing or slightly degraded ones, primarily for the purpose of scientific research but also to try to increase environmental awareness of the delicate nature and predicament of coral reefs amongst both tourist divers and locals alike. About 45 volunteer divers of advanced level or above were given tools to literally drill holes into rocks, hard corals or any suitable substrate, and then plant branching coral fragments that had previously been grown in a nearby coral nursery. Projects Abroad put forward 10 volunteers, and all involved had a great time, enjoying the opportunity to participate in a joint project with many others, and for such an important event. As there was an official ceremony on Koh Phi Phi Don first thing in the morning, we spent the previous night on our boat, the MV Navada, sleeping either in hammocks or on mats. A live-a-board trip on the Navada happens maybe twice a year, so is call for a good degree of excitement and fun. However, we were anchored in the main bay of Phi Phi and our sleep was ever so slightly disturbed by thumping music coming from the island's bars till 3am. The next day, during the rehabilitation event, the wind picked up around 3pm and the rough weather meant that the last dive of the day was aborted and we all had to stay an extra night on board the boat, though a different location was chosen and everyone had a better night's sleep.

Just before Christmas, we headed north to Klong Naka National Park where we camped two nights and enjoyed the change of scenery: from our beautiful beaches and islands to a 55,000 ha rainforest, the best preserved and untouched rainforest in Thailand. The aim was to help the rangers map the existing trails using GPS, at the same time as learning a little about the jungle and its wildlife. Unfortunately, the day we arrived, the rangers had discovered a nearby community that was illegally trying to cut down some of the trees, so we were not able to do much work with them as they were busy tracking down the poachers and arresting them. We did manage to have a good time trekking through the forest and sitting around the campfire though, and we also visited a nearby wild monkey rehabilitation park which everyone enjoyed.

On the diving side of things, as well as the coral rehabilitation project at the beginning of the month, we have continued our usual reef monitoring work and did five fish surveys and four Reef Watch surveys as well as analysing water samples at the reefs we visit regularly. Amongst all the usual colourful tropical fish that are seen regularly, volunteers have also spotted a school of squid, a large jellyfish identified as Phyllorizha punctata, a varicose wart slug, a leopard shark and a blue-spotted stingray. Christmas day's diving consisted of two spectacular fun dives at Phi Phi where everyone was treated to seeing durban dancing shrimps, another leopard shark, a banded sea snake, a snake eel, a flat worm, a sponge snail and on the way back a pod of spotted dolphins swam along the front and side of the boat for ten to fifteen minutes.

One other sighting that is particularly good news was a Triton, a large predatory sea snail that has Crown of Thorns starfish (COTS) as part of their diet. This is good news because there are not many around due to being popular amongst shell collectors as ornaments and souvenirs, but more importantly they are the only know predator of COTS. Recently, we have been noticing more COTS than usual on some reefs, and as they eat live coral polyps this is not a positive sign as population explosions of COTS have been known to decimate entire reefs. So, a Triton is most definitely a welcome sighting. In response to the high numbers of COTS, we have been asked by PMBC to remove them on certain reefs if we come across them. This is a tricky business as they have many very sharp and slightly poisonous spines all over their body, so great care is needed when removing them. The best way to dispose of them is to keep them out of water until they die and then bury them in the sand, which is what we did when we collected four COTS from Hin Bida Nok.

As well as removing the potentially damaging COTS from the local reefs, there have been several successful salvage missions at 5 five locations. Again at Bida Nok, a group of volunteers raised an enormous collapsed fish trap to the surface using plastic bags as lift bags. Due to the size, shape and many sharp pieces of wire poking out all over the place we were unable to weigh this, but judging on the number of difficulty of lifting it out of the water, we estimated the weight to be well over 150kg. We have also been informed by Pam, our ex-Field Coordinator who is now working as a freelance Divemaster for other dive companies in Ao Nang, that there is another trap to remove on the east side of Bida Nok so we will try to get back there sometime soon to remove this. Two other fish traps have been spotted at Mushroom Rock on the way to Phi Phi, and attempts have been made to remove them but they have proved particularly difficult to lift or break down, so pieces of them have been taken and again we will need to return for these at some point in the near future. As well as all these, the usual fish nets, rope and lines have been collected at other sites along with a couple of more unusual items including a mop, a boat engine chain and two towels. The total weight removed from the reefs this month adds up to 243kg, which means that December is the record breaking month for marine salvage, beating even the mammoth missions to remove fishing nets at Mu Sang Nua. Additionally, it brings our total for the year past the 1000kg mark to 1050kg. This is a fantastic achievement that has required an incredible amount of effort and delicate work by all the volunteers over the past year, so well done and a big thank you to all involved.

On the beach clean-ups this month, we have only had time to clean two local beaches due to the trip to Klong Naka. However, close to 260kg of litter has been collected which is impressive considering that one of the beaches, Klong Muang, was covered with tiny bits of polystyrene which took a very long time to pick-up but hardly weighs a thing. The other beach cleaned was Lam Pho where several batteries were found as well as many fish nets caught in amongst the branches and snorkel roots of the mangrove trees growing on the beach. So, at the close of 2007, the total amount of rubbish removed from the local beaches comes in at a staggering 7130kg. Records of both the land and reef salvage efforts have been plugged into a spreadsheet, and these can be seen in the graphs accompanying this monthly update.

As can be deduced from these figures, marine debris is an awful problem in Thailand, some of which arrives from countries far away brought in on the tides and ocean currents. However, as everyone that has visited Thailand before will have noticed, responsible litter disposal is not high in the consciousness of the people, so there is clearly work to be done in educating the public about the damage and problems it causes. We have been doing this throughout the year by going to local schools and running environmental workshops with the school children, and then getting them out on the beaches helping on clean-ups so they can see for themselves how much rubbish there is lying about. We intend to continue with these awareness-raising and clean up programmes throughout the coming year as the younger generation are the ones that can really make a difference to the problem if they are educated before picking up bad habits as they grow older.

Lastly is the work in the mangroves, which in December has consisted of returning to our research site to measure the two species of saplings planted under varying environmental conditions with the aim of discovering in the quickest and most successful way of cultivating them from seeds. The first day was a productive one where half the plants were measured and quite substantial repairs were made to the shade structures which had taken a bit of a battering by the tides and wind. Unfortunately on the second day, we were unlucky with some wet weather which presented problems when recording the growth rates on paper, so the rest had to be completed on a third day towards the end of the month, but eventually we did manage to measure all our saplings from the experimental nursery. Over this month, the results will be analysed and we hope to have a summary report produced for the website by the end of January. One observation was that most of the trees seem to be spreading roots and so are probably now ready for transplanting before they become too established, so that provides a definite focus for the first month of 2008. During December though, some interesting animals were spotted in the mangroves including 2 salamanders, a large water monitor lizard, and a colourful kingfisher that flew away before allowing us to identify what species it was.

So, we have come to the end of a hugely positive and productive 2007 here in Ao Nang, and all that remains to be said is a huge thank you to all the hard-working volunteers and staff that have contributed their much appreciated time and effort in making it so. I have no doubt that 2008 will be just as, and hopefully even more, constructive a year as the one just past, for both the local communities here and all the future volunteers that are planning on joining us for an incredible and satisfying experience.

Click here and see our graphs of the amount of rubbish the volunteers have collected from the reefs and beaches here in Ao Nang over 2007 - impressive work.

Marten Meynell
3^rd January 2008
Director for Thailand Conservation
Projects Abroad

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