Conservation - THAILAND Monthly Update for Conservation Programme - November 2007

Thailand Marine Conservation Project - November 2007

November has certainly seen the start of the high season, with the blazing sun and calmer weather everyone has been waiting for. Consequently, we've had a productive marine salvage month as well as having spotted some great marine wildlife whilst diving, planted many mangrove saplings at a new site near a Buddhist temple, and carried out an environmental awareness raising workshop with a local school amongst all the other activities this month.

After not having been able to get to Mu Sang Nua during the south westerly monsoon season due to its exposed location, we took the opportunity to re-visit this reef to see how it had fared during the low season. Being a reef that many fishermen fish at, it is always covered in nets each time we dive there. This time was no different; we found an enormous net covering the majority of the reef which took two days and four dives to remove and weighed in at around 150kg. A mission such as this is always an exciting activity for all involved and is one of the most fulfilling for many volunteers as the effort is clearly visible at the end of the day when the reef is free of net. Even though we manage to return to Mu Sang Nua only a few times a year, I am certain that our salvage efforts over the past two years have allowed the reef to recover each time from the hugely damaging effects of such large fishing nets, and consequently preserved, in my opinion, one of the best reefs in the area. There were three additional salvage dives this month at Monkey Bay, Ao Nui and Losama Bay where substantial amounts of fishing net, lines and rope were removed along with the odd shoe, plastic and glass bottles, and a towel. So, the total monthly weight removed from the reefs here in Krabi comes in at a little over 200kg which is the second highest amount this year, the only month beating it being March which was another Mu Sang Nua net removal mission.

Throughout the month there have always been at least three volunteers competent enough in fish identification and reef survey methods to carry out fish or reef watch surveys on most dives, as well as sometimes acting as mentors for some of the newer volunteers during training. We have also begun testing the water quality on the reefs this month and intend to continue in the future to monitor any change of condition in the waters of the local Andaman Sea. This will hopefully be the start of an interesting and important study as there is so much development taking place along the Krabi coastline that I would be surprised if it does not affect the quality of the water and consequently have a negative impact on the reefs in the area. Carrying out this monitoring alongside the reef and fish surveys will hopefully allow us to detect any changes that are occurring on the reefs, and possibly provide a clue as to why they are happening. However, at present there are still healthy reefs to sustain some exciting marine wildlife as is evidenced by sightings of several sea snakes, pipefish, cuttlefish, over thirty blacktip sharks, a school of yellowtail barracuda, a seahorse, two leopard sharks, and at Maya Wall on two different dives, two turtles and an octopus befriended by a peacock grouper. The octopus was of the same species and size each time so could well be the same one. The interesting observation from this though was the peacock grouper that was swimming around it both times. A very quick search on the internet showed that there had been similar sightings in Thailand before, so I am interested to find out whether groupers and octopi are known to have some kind of interdependent relationship.

One of the turtles spotted at Maya Wall had only three flippers, which leads in nicely to the bio-workshop that we all went through to Phuket Marine Biological Centre for at the beginning of the month. We managed to squeeze in an interesting presentation about the life cycles of turtles and the multitude of threats they face from humans, luckily just before the power was cut off at PMBC for a couple of hours. The bio-workshop was well timed as we had seen the three flippered turtle the day before so we mentioned it to the expert who then explained about the rescue unit they have at PMBC, and said that it might even be one of the turtles they have rescued, helped recover and released back into the wild. A couple of weeks later we spotted what we think was the same turtle again at Maya Wall, and all that saw it remembered the good work being carried out at PMBC. After a trip round the aquarium and lunch we headed back to the turtle breeding and rescue unit to help clean the aquariums. Despite scrubbing the walls and floors being quite physical work, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon due to the very close contact with the turtles, which even involved cleaning their shells and lifting them to clean beneath them. Like most of the volunteers, I was surprised by the impressive weight of the turtles, often taking two people to lift them completely off the ground.

This month has been a productive month in the mangroves with three days at the beginning of the month spent planting Bruguiera saplings at a new site belonging to a Buddhist temple, Wat Pakasai. Initially it had been thought it would only be one day's planting but at the end of the first day, the monks were very enthusiastic for the volunteers to return and continue planting as many trees as possible. In three days, ground was cleared, holes were dug, and a total of 1700 saplings were planted with the help of five or six locals each day. All the volunteers enjoyed the activity, especially as they felt they were really helping the local community and the temple. We also had a follow up to the mangrove bio-workshop in October, where we went to Klong Yuan to monitor the water quality of the site, carry out some animal surveys and measure the saplings we transplanted two months before that had been initially grown in varying soil conditions. Whilst testing the water quality, we found that the water was often too muddy to allow easy comparison with the colour charts. Having later discussed this with Marie, we have decided to try a new method where we collect the water and let it sit for a while to allow the sediment to settle to the bottom, which will hopefully produce clearer results next time. The measuring of the saplings went well with volunteers giving the trees a grade on the number of leaves and also measuring their growth. Having compared the results with the grades given when they were transplanted, it seems as though many leaves have been eaten in the interim. However, this does not necessarily mean that they will not survive or even that they have not grown; we had not measured their height before so next time we return to monitor them we will hopefully have more of an idea of their growth and survival rates.

On the beach cleanup front, there have been only two this month, the first being at Ao Nam Mao where the volunteers alone cleared up 337.7kg of rubbish. The second was at Noppharat Thara where the volunteers were joined by sixty children from Baan Klong Haeng school, a local school which we had all visited the previous afternoon to carry out a workshop on the harmful effects of marine litter. The workshop followed a similar outline to ones we have run before in other schools, with two powerpoint presentations split up by interactive educational games, a dvd of volunteers cleaning a reef on Phi Phi, and finishing with a short play demonstrating how litter can kill marine life. Two superb new games had been developed the previous week by the volunteers, with one teaching which items of litter should be recycled, which should be taken to the rubbish dump, and the organic items that can be left. The other was a board game about the life cycle of marine turtles and the multiple threats they face from human activities. The afternoon was enjoyed by all, and the games went down particularly well which hopefully will have had a positive impact on the attitudes of the children; it certainly generated enthusiasm for the beach clean the following day. Due to high tides in the afternoon, we could only clean the beach in the morning but we managed to clean the majority of the beach and the grass verge above. Each volunteer was assigned a group of six children to supervise, and to increase interaction between them the children had to find out as much information about the volunteer as possible by asking questions in English. After lunch each group had to present their findings to the whole gathering, which caused much laughter and definitely created a good bond between everyone. To end the day, each child was presented with a certificate stating that they had taken part in a beach clean the volunteers from Projects Abroad. It was a great day and in just two hours 176.2kg of rubbish was collected, a large part being made of cigarette butts and plastic bottle tops of which there many.

So, it's been a positive and productive November, and heading into the last month of 2007, as well as the usual conservation activities, the volunteers will be taking part in some coral reef rehabilitation with PMBC in celebration of His Majesty, the King's 80th birthday, and there are plans for a trip to Klong Naka in Ranong, which holds some of the most pristine and best preserved rainforest in Thailand, to help the rangers map the trails and develop information boards. It should be a fun and interesting month, with the additional festivities of Christmas and New Year to look forward to.

Marten Meynell
4^th December 2007
Director for Thailand Conservation
Projects Abroad

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