Conservation - THAILAND Monthly Update for Conservation Programme - January 2007

Thailand - January 2007

With the new project-dedicated website now up and running, I feel very proud and privileged to be writing the very first monthly update of the Projects Abroad Marine Conservation Project here in Ao Nang, Thailand. The project, which has been running since May 2005, has grown over the year and a half since its conception, into an exciting and constructive project benefiting the environment and local communities within the Andaman Sea and Krabi province.

As this is the first monthly update I feel I should recount the fantastic achievements of the past volunteers before beginning to report on the current position of the project. After reviewing the records of the activities of all the volunteers that have passed through Ao Nang since May 2005 to December 2006, the figures speak for themselves as to how valuable your efforts have been. Over 18,500 mangrove seeds and saplings were planted, helping to rehabilitate four areas of badly degraded mangrove forest, previously cut down for the land to be turned into shrimp farms. 8 tonnes of rubbish were collected between April and December 2006 from six local beaches and islands, helping to keep these beaches free of dangerous, polluting and unsightly debris, and preventing much of it from being washed back into the sea and causing harm to the marine environment. Between May and December 2006, over 600kg of debris were removed from the sea reducing the stress placed on the delicate reef ecosystems and helping to preserve many marine animals that were at risk of becoming entangled in the lost fishing nets and lines. As well as these vital practical conservation efforts volunteers also contributed by carrying out many Reef Watch surveys of the local reefs, data which was then given to the Phuket Marine Biological Centre for further analysis on the changing conditions of the reefs within the Andaman Sea.

So, 2006 ended on a high note with the volunteers having an afternoon dive, dinner aboard the Navada and then a night dive on Christmas Eve, and two dives on Christmas Day followed by a big roast feast at a local English man's restaurant. The volunteers then went on a canoe trip through some mangroves and spectacular caves on the 30th before seeing the New Year in at the always friendly and popular drinking hole - the Umbrella Pub in Ao Nang.

And so, on to 2007 - a new year that I'm sure will see the project progressing further as plans developed towards the end of last year are fully implemented, the monitoring and ecosystem rehabilitation programmes continue, and research into new exciting projects gets underway.

I'll begin with the reef monitoring programme that we began towards the end of November with the four volunteers that were with us at that time. It is a six-week programme that develops volunteers' marine observation and survey skills alongside crucial buoyancy control so as not to damage the reefs that we are monitoring. Due to Christmas and New Year festivities and the departure dates of the participating volunteers, only two completed the full six weeks, which ended in the middle of this month. However, feedback from all four of the volunteers was very positive and they all enjoyed the fact that they could now identify many more marine species than before they started the programme; a skill that I know personally is very rewarding and stays with you for the rest of your life (as long as you keep on diving, at any rate!). Jason, one of the two volunteers that completed the full programme just before leaving the project to go on a live-a-board trip to the Similan Islands was very excited that he was going to being able to know the spectacular creatures that he would be seeing at one of the world's top ten dive sites. Added to this was the volunteers' satisfaction of completing surveys that were then entered into our database enabling us in the future to compare the condition of the local reefs and the number of marine organisms found from one year to the next. On completion of the course, Nicole, the other volunteer to finish it, went on to conduct a couple of successful Reef Watch surveys that will be handed over to the Phuket Marine Biological Centre for their wider analysis of the reefs of the Andaman Sea. So, now we have a new batch of volunteers qualified to Advanced level, ready and raring to begin the second round of our reef monitoring programme, which I am sure will be an equally rewarding experience for them as it was for our 'pilot' volunteers.

Alongside the regular monitoring of the reefs that volunteers have been carrying out, there is also the practical side of conservation that is always required. I'm talking of reef salvage of course. Volunteers have made nine salvage dives during the month of January at seven different sites, predominantly around the local islands, such as Koh See and Koh Ya Wa Sam. The total weight of all the debris removed from the reefs amounts to 30.8 kg, and predominantly consists of fishing nets, lines and fish traps, but some of the other interesting items collected were a snorkel, anchor parts, engine parts, a boat lamp, and several lighters. It is always very satisfying coming up to the surface with a bag full of debris that has the potential to entrap fish and other animals, as well as smothering corals and reducing their ability to grow and reproduce. This work will continue unabated, and hopefully through our efforts the reefs will remain cleaner and safer allowing them and their marine inhabitants to prosper healthily.

In amongst all the surveys and reef cleaning, volunteers have sighted some fantastic marine creatures, both big and small. Sometimes it is the smaller animals that give the greatest pleasure as they are harder to spot, either hiding or so well camouflaged, such as the five seahorses that have been spotted at three different sites, one of them pregnant, or the beautiful Ornate ghost pipefishes or the Brock's pipefish that looks identical to a sea whip bobbing in the current. But then again, the surprise and heart-thumping excitement that is provoked by the sight of a Leopard shark, a Black-tip reef shark or a Hawksbill turtle, all of which have been seen recently, takes some beating.

Moving away from the diving side of the project and on to the crucial coastal conservation work that volunteers carry out for two days each week, I'll talk about the much-awaited start of our mangrove research project first. Having planted four sites over the last year and a half with various species of mangrove seed or sapling, all of which have seen a satisfactory average survival rate of over 50%, we have set out sights on achieving even better success rates of survival and quicker growth. Consequently we have planned a research programme to test different methods of cultivating mangrove seeds and transplanting the young saplings. We were very kindly given some land for this purpose in late December by the Krabi Mangrove Department and local community of Ban Thung Prasan where we have helped plant several thousand trees in the second half of 2006. It is next to an area we have previously planted, across a very rickety bridge that many of past volunteers will remember and over a particularly water-logged and muddy subsidiary canal that can be precariously crossed for the most part of the day. However, when we first got there it was overgrown with weeds taller than any of us, so for the first two mangrove days of 2007 we went out with the sickles and hoes to clear the land in preparation for our research. Clearance days are always tough work, especially when the sun is blazing down, but the volunteers worked hard and cleared away a large enough area to work in, then concentrated on completely removing the root systems of the weeds in four smaller areas targeted for the nurseries. Then two weeks later, the volunteers went out into the very muddy Klong Jilat with small sickles on long bamboo poles and collected over 600 mature propagules (seeds) of Ceriops tagal and 53 of the larger Rhizophora apiculata propagules. The Ceriops tagal were then planted under the different conditions of shade and sunlight, into bags or straight into the ground, and on higher dryer ground or into a more water-logged area that is inundated daily by seawater. These six variables should hopefully provide very interesting results over the coming months as we watch the seeds develop into saplings ready for transplantation, which will signify the beginning of the second phase of the research of this species. We will have to return next month to the seed collection site to see if more Rhizophora apiculata seeds have reached their maturation stage so that we can carry out similar experiments with them also.

On a similar topic is the small-scale soil experiment that we are conducting in the garden of Medhi and Mon's house, in which in mid-December we planted 206 mangrove seeds (Ceriops taga) in two different types of soil (jungle soil and mangrove mud) and also mixing these soils with different ratios of charcoal and coconut husk, in order to get a first insight into the possibilities of enhancing the growth using a particular soil mixture. We have been checking these seeds on a regular basis and their have been marked differences in the growth rate of each sample. Between the pure soil groups the seeds planted in their natural sediment (mangrove mud) have shown far better growth and survival rates than those in the jungle soil; a result which was expected. We also planted some seeds that had been collected slightly before they had fully matured, the purpose of which was to discover if this reduced their growth rates. The result has been significant with one third of them having already died and the rest showing very minimal growth, which proves that we must ensure that the seeds are ripe when we next collect this species. When looking at the three soil mixtures, the seeds planted in 50% charcoal, 25% soil & 25% coconut husk have shown the highest growth rates; an interesting result that is most probably down to the water drawing properties of the charcoal and water retention of the coconut husk. However, as I mentioned at the start, these are very small-scale experiments that will need to be repeated with more seeds, and it will also be interesting to see how they cope with being transferred into their natural environment after becoming used to enhanced growing conditions - watch this space!

The last of the usual activities carried out by the volunteers is the cleaning of local beaches. Although we've only had two clean-ups so far this year at Ao Nam Mao and Andaman Beach, the five volunteers that have been here this month have collected 173 kg of all sorts of rubbish - plastic predominantly, but also a fair amount of glass and metal - that is continuously washed down the rivers or swept ashore by the waves. They even came across a crab trapped in a metal container which was subsequently freed, and a discarded thermometer. As always, it's not the nicest of jobs but it is very rewarding to see a nice clean beach at the end of the day, so well done volunteers, both past and present.

The bio-workshop this month was given by Donnapat Tamornsuwan from Wetlands International in Krabi. We all took a longtail boat over to the island of Koh Klang where he gave a presentation explaining the international importance of Krabi estuary for resident and migratory shorebirds - the inter-tidal wetlands are very rich in food pickings for a great many birds that use this area as a resting place on their annual migrations between Siberia and Australasia. We then travelled by boat to the seaward side of the island where we spent an hour or so spotting a variety of birds, which unfortunately were perched on fish traps just too far out to sea to easily identify. So, after a hearty lunch provided by the locals that look after the bird hide and who are part of the conservation community of Koh Klang, we proceeded to construct a bird resting site on the beach, with the aim of enticing the birds to settle significantly closer to the shore-side bird hide and thus be easier to watch. We used already present upright poles that had been used for similar purposes in years past and attached several horizontal lengths of bamboo above head height between the uprights. We will be returning in early March with a group of sixty school children to hopefully see many more birds, and thus the effectiveness of our hard work.

So, that's an account of the fantastic contribution the volunteers are making towards marine and coastal conservation in Krabi. These efforts are much appreciated by all that come into contact with our work and activities, so a great thank you to all of you that have devoted time, sweat and sore, blistered hands for the cause. On a final fun note, I'll mention the live-a-board that the volunteers went on for three days down south to Koh Haa Yai, Hin Daeng and Hin Muang at the end of January. Unfortunately no manta rays or whale sharks were spotted (except, of course, if you count Justine's fleeting glimpse of a whale shark's tail), but everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves having seen spectacular reefs and far greater numbers and diversity of fish and other marine species than we see on an everyday basis in Krabi. A well-deserved trip before another work-filled, yet rewarding month ahead - I look forward to reporting on the progress of all the various activities mentioned above.

Marten Meynell
Conservation Manager
Thailand Marine Conservation Project - Ao Nang
6th January 2007

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