Conservation - THAILAND Monthly Update for Conservation Programme - September 2007

Thailand Marine Conservation Project - September 2007

So, with a maximum of five conservation volunteers and at one point down to only one, it has been a quiet month here in Ao Nang. However, on the third Saturday of the month we were joined by the three teaching volunteers and 38 children from Baan Ao Nang school for the International Coastal Cleanup; a day where hundreds of thousands of volunteers around the world descend on beaches to clear up all the debris accumulated on them.

The day previous, we had gone into the school to give an environmental awareness raising presentation and get the kids excited about the cleanup. This consisted of an informative slideshow, a short dvd of volunteers cleaning a coral reef, and a round of 'lingo bingo' - a game of bingo developed by previous volunteers involving pictures of marine organisms with the names written in Thai and English. The children split into 8 groups and the first to fill their card were the winners, although so as not to have any disappointed kids we gave prizes to all the groups. To end with, all the volunteers and staff put on a little play about the dangers of marine litter which had all the kids laughing at us, but hopefully getting the important message across at the same time. The next day we were all on Ao Nam Mao beach cleaning by 8.30am, again in 8 groups of school children with one volunteer per group.

The early start was due to the high tide at midday, so we cleaned a 600m stretch of beach, separated it into piles of metal, plastic, and glass, and weighed it all before 12pm. In total, 208.2kg of rubbish was collected by the enthusiastic kids and volunteers, and miraculously the rain held off until we were on the bus about to go back to the school for lunch, whereupon for the next 3 days it was a continuous torrential downpour! It was a fun and successful couple of days, with many of the kids thanking the volunteers for working with them and coming to help protect the environment in Thailand.

Continuing with the land-based activities, we've had four days in the mangroves, predominantly monitoring the growth of the seeds we have under experimental conditions, both at Chong Pli House and at Baan Thung Prasan. The last time we monitored the seeds at Chong Pli House which had been planted in different soil mixtures was in June. When we went back this time, we found that there had been an outbreak of snails and many of the leaves had been eaten. This took us by surprise us and so we decided to move the 107 healthy saplings to Klong Yuan, an old shrimp farm which volunteers had spent a long time replanting back in March 2006, and transplant them into the wild to see how they fare after beginning their lives in special soil conditions.

At our other research site at Baan Thung Prasan, we found that on the whole the Ceriops tagal were growing pretty well though there is still no real conclusive evidence whether they grow better in bags or planted straight into the ground and in the sun or the shade. The Bruguiera sexangula seeds in the high ground were faring a lot better than the ones in the waterlogged ground as many in the latter were either missing or dead. Additionally, the waterlogged soil seemed to have shifted a lot of the plants out of line which made for difficult correlating of previous monitoring results. The lower survival rate of the Bruguiera sexangula in the more submerged zone is slightly strange because according to mangrove literature they are more suited to the seaward zone than Ceriops tagal. It could be due to the salinity of the soil in this spot as they prefer low saline environments, so next time we go back there I would like to monitor the water properties.

The Heritiera littoralis that were planted in August have unfortunately been yet still less successful. Despite careful selection of promising seeds prior to planting many had not taken root and had either been washed away completely or had not grown at all. The highest survival rate was 19% in the seeds planted into bags on high ground in the shade, the lowest survival rate being 0% in the waterlogged ground, with the batches under the six other variables all having under 10% survivorship. This was disappointing to see but some mangrove species are definitely more predisposed to nursery rearing than others, so we can conclude that this is a species that is not so easily cultivated.

On the diving side of things this month has been fairly similar to August with the bad weather disrupting the schedule and the visibility rarely being more than 5m. Consequently, carrying out effective identification training dives or reef surveys has often been quite hard. However, as the four volunteers here at the beginning of the month were old-timers with the necessary knowledge of the corals and fish, we did manage to complete four Reef Watch surveys for Phuket Marine Biological Centre. They also did several salvage dives collecting the usual fish nets that are always caught on the reefs as well as finding 3 dive masks and 5 snorkels that had been dropped by tourists. A total of 28.7kg of rubbish was removed from the reefs this month, which is good going for only four volunteers.

In mid September there was a complete change in volunteers with two new ones starting after the older ones had left, so the diving days since have been taken up with their training. They have one more day to go till they complete their advanced course and then they will get stuck into the reef monitoring training and reef salvage, which I'm sure they are eagerly looking forward to.

And to finish on the social note of the month, instead of a monthly barbeque we all went out for dinner in Krabi where we had some delicious local dishes including fried frog - a dish that many of us thought we would try for the first time in France, but Thailand is always full of surprises. This was followed by a trip to the ten pin bowling alley where the girls showed up the boys in a couple of hotly contested games; a definite rematch is on the cards!

So, into October already and we have 5 new volunteers arriving in the first week, which will increase the group feel of the project which has diminished slightly the last couple of weeks with only two volunteers. And, towards the end of the month when everyone has settled in, we are planning a 3 day trip to clean some beaches further afield around the Khao Lak area - a good opportunity for the volunteers to see a different part of Thailand whilst doing some conservation at the same time.

Marten Meynell
3^rd October 2007
Director for Thailand Conservation
Projects Abroad

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