ENVIRONMENTAL NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2003

The diving “high” season has really started now and looking at the numbers of boats and divers on our dive sites it surely looks like a very good start for Phuket’s main dive season.

Divers visiting the Similan islands may have noticed that at the south-west tip of island #5 a single white mooring buoy has been installed. This mooring is attached to a good sized Taiwanese fishing trawler that the National Park sunk there about 6 months ago. The wreck is laying on its port-side next to the reef-slope at a depth of approx. 30 meters and is easy to dive. Not much fish or marine life on it yet but that will hopefully change over the next few months.

I hope that this is only the beginning of creating artificial reefs in our area and that within the next year or so more man-made reefs will be installed and available for divers to dive on.

A team of Japanese environmental scientists are currently running a study in the Similan National Park and are trying to determine the impact of tourism on the reefs and islands. They are also determining what the maximum amount of tourists/boats visiting the Marine Park should be and will present their findings in a report to the National Park Headquarters. What impact their conclusions will have on the dive industry is still unclear at this stage.

The Similans are not that remote anymore nowadays and divers wishing to visit the islands for just one day can do so by speed and power boats, large daytrip dive boats or catamaran. With the Similans having only a limited number of (open and) favorite dive sites most dive sites are crowded with divers any time of the day. All those divers, boats and visitors of course leave their mark on the reefs and environment and not always in a positive way. Another true danger with so many boats in the National Park is the increased chance on collisions with divers or other boats. Unfortunately still way too many dive boats are not using/not having an inflatable boat for dropping and picking up their divers.

The Similan National Park Headquarters has expressed its concern about the increased amount of visitors and are now looking for a quality rather than quantity solution. Already this year lodging possibilities for tourists staying on island #4 and #8 have been reduced and there has been a discussion about limiting divers and dive boats in the near future as well.

Attention daytrip dive-operators/instructors: Because I’m full-time working on a live-aboard and unable to provide news about Phuket’s daytrip dive sites I would like to invite one of you to bi-monthly send me a little update about those sites. I will include the update then (with your name) in this newsletter so that we all get a better picture of the daytrip dive sites and their environment as well. Thanks!

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