Environmental News December 2002

Dear all,



It's been a while since my last "Environmental Newsletter" to all of you and although I did not receive many responses on that first newsletter I do hope you all enjoyed reading it.

First of all I would like to thank the few people who did contact me the last couple of weeks and gave me useful advise, tips and updates about uncommon marinelife from our area.

During the last DOCT Committee meeting it was decided that the existing Environmental Committee Member "Team" (me!) should be expanded with one other person. The newly appointed (Thai) Environmental Committee Member is Khun Gai from Scuba Cat and I like to welcome him here officially.

The Underwater Clean-Up at Patong Bay during the Patong Carnival was mainly a succes because of the Thai participating divers who brought in the major part of the 1000+ kg collected trash on that day.
Sadly only a handful of foreigners from Phuket based diveshops participated and I got only 1 response (Aqualand) on my invitation letter from all the DOCT member diveshops.
We can and should do better than this and I really hope that for next year more of us will be helping with the Underwater Clean-Up at Patong Beach.
Personally I had a good time cleaning up the reef at Patong and enjoyed the unusual good visibility and saw some interesting critters too! I came across a (male juvenile) black ribbon eel at only 6 meters depth, a bunch of shrimpfish, 2 cuttlefishes and also 2 very juvenile tallfin batfishes. Patong still has a lot to offer on its reefs and is worth to dive at least once in a while...


I've visited some seafood restaurants close to Ko Sireh where leopard sharks, groupers, moray eels, surgeonfishes, jacks and other marinelife are held alive in netted cages in the mangrove canals. Those netted cages are not very animal friendly and most animals have a pretty sad (and short) life in those places. Especially the leopard sharks are in an awful situation and need to be helped I think. I have contacted and informed the Phuket Marine Biological Centre and asked for their help but haven't had an answer yet. It would be great if we could rescue the sharks and set them free somewhere relatively safe.

That our divesites are getting more and more crowded with diveboats and their divers is nothing new, but it is something that is affecting our quality of divesites and quality of fun for our customers a lot. It is not unusual to find up to 4 or 5 diveboats on certain sites in the Similans and up to 10 or more on Richeliue Rock.
Nobody is really regulating the flow of diveboats and divers at this moment and we all sort of dive where and when we like to dive. I'm fairly sure that in the near future the National Park will come up with a set of rules to limit the amount of divers and diveboats on our divesites.
It may not be a bad idea to put our thoughts about this issue together and see if we can come up with a solution that suits all of us before somebody else comes up with a set of rules and regulations that we may not be so happy with.
Please send me your ideas.....

I would also like to add some tips for divecrew with this newsletter:
Include an eco-friendly part in all your dive briefings and discuss the right way to observe critters in their natural environment.
Help divers to choose the right amount of weight and don’t hesitate to speak up when they overweight themselves.
Insist on neutral buoyancy and “hands-off” on all dives for all divers.
Organize slide- or video shows from local marine life during (liveaboard) cruises for your divers.
Try to be enthusiastic when pointing out critters big and small and study the animals whenever you have a chance.
Organize underwater clean-ups, promote collecting trash on all dives and help maintaining or installing safe moorings.
Teach your boat-crew how to dive, how to approach and pick up moorings safely and also teach them not to litter while on sea.
Ask your cook to prepare a bit less (or none at all!) seafood and more other dishes.
Don’t allow for fishing on any dive site either by crew or customers and choose dive sites that are appropriate for your group of divers and their experience.
True, it takes a little effort from your side to try to make a difference and to become a diver that truly cares about the underwater realm. But please realize that your help and care may be the last real chance our oceans and reefs have and will cost you nothing but a little bit of your time and care.

Lastly, I would like to ask all of you (again) to send me information regarding whales or whaleshark sightings that you may have accumulated over the last few years or sighting information of whales and whalesharks that you may come across this season. All this data will be handed over to the Marine Endangered Species Unit of the Phuket Marine Biological Centre who are studying behaviour and migration patterns of these animals.
I do have a log of the last 11 years from whalesharks, pseudo-orca's, killer whales, tiger sharks, hammerhead sharks, bowmouth guitar fishes and a few other unusual animals and I guarantee you that it's a lot of fun and interesting to maintain such a record.
If you don't know how to keep a record of uncommon animals like whalesharks or if you would like to know what you should look out for when encountering unusual animals please send me a message and I will be more than happy to either give you advise or send you some sighting-forms that you can use.


Safe diving,
Merry X-mas,

Hans Tibboel,
DOCT,
Environmental Comittee Member
hans@doct-phuket.org