ENVIRONMENTAL NEWSLETTER AUGUST 2003

Dear All,

The DOCT has been extremely busy last few months with organizing a new and attractive version of the annual Underwater Reef & Beach Clean-Up. This year an Underwater Treasure Hunt is included with attractive prices to win ranging from Diving Courses up to Luxury Liveaboard Diving Cruises. I would like to invite all of you (divers and non-divers) this September 13 to join us and together clean up some of Phuket’s main daytrip dive-destinations both under water and above!

Please visit our website now (www.doct-phuket.org) for more information and to register yourself, your family and your friends online. Again, everybody is welcome to join and all divers and non-divers will have an equal chance to win great prices exceeding a total of 5 million Baht.

The minor registration fee of 500 Baht per person includes a free T-shirt, PADI Project Aware certificate, boat transfers, tank and weights, delicious lunch on shore upon return and lots of fun.

Please do not wait but register NOW and actively do something good for this beautiful part of Thailand that many of us have made our home. Let’s show Thailand and its citizens, our customers and all the divers in the world that we truly care about our reefs and beaches.

Special note for all Dive and Retail Shop Managers, Managing Directors and Water-Sport related Business Owners:
Get away for just 1 day from your (hand) phone, PC and easy chair and join this day with us together. Your personal participation will be of great value to all other people joining this day and for yourself guaranteed a day to remember!

Rain, rain and more rain!

I’m happy to say that we are now half-way through our “rainy” season and that hopefully after another two months or so less water will fall from the sky and more divers fly in!

Of course let’s not forget that Phuket needs the rain to replenish its fresh water resources and store up for the coming “high” season. Unfortunately there’s quite a bit of uncontrolled construction and with it a lot of natural resources destruction going on. Hillside (scrub) forests are being cut down to make place for dirt roads that become mud-streams when it’s raining and take tons of topsoil away. The mud will at some stage end up in the sea and smother the close to shore (fringing) coral reefs surrounding Phuket. One can only hope that the local authorities will recognize the need to curb, manage and supervise the ever ongoing construction on the island. If not, Phuket may soon loose a lot of its (natural) charm and end up with red mud beaches and a sea devoid of any life.

Safe diving -
Hans Tibboel,
Environment Sub-Committee DOCT, Phuket Chapter