Underwater and Beach Clean Up at Coral Island

At the end of May I got a phone call from Project Manager, Khun Paitul at the Phuket Marine Biological Center. Khun Paitul informed me that the PMBC had organized an underwater and beach clean up at Coral Island on June 7th, and needed some help from the local dive community.
I told Khun Paitul that I would contact the DOCT affiliated Diveshops and ask for their participation in this event and send an email to all members the following day.

We all met each other on June 7th at 09:00 AM on the jetty of the PMBC at Cape Panwa. Many concerned Thai divers drove by car from Bangkok, Prince Songkla University, the PMBC, representatives from the T.A.T. and 25 divers from DOCT affiliated Diveshops helped to load the transfer boat with dive and photo gear, drinking water, and enough lunch packets for the 65 environmentally aware volunteers.

Blue skies and calm seas promised a nice day out. Within 40 minutes we arrived at Coral Island where we all joined an opening ceremony and received our instructions for the dives to be done. A beach clean up was also initiated by some of the non-divers while the scuba divers collected trash on the reef using safety markers and lift bags. Fishnets and traps, glass and plastic bottles, iron chain, plastic bags and other trash was brought up from the shallow reef and soon garbage was piling up on the beach.

Lunch was simple but tasty and after a short break another dive was initiated. By 14:30 all divers were back on the beach again and trash was weighted totaling a whopping 266-kg!
Satisfied with the cleaning of the reef and the beach on the same day, we all climbed back on the big boat that brought us safely back to the PMBC jetty. We were all warmly thanked for our participation and valued contribution to this environmental friendly event and all parties involved agreed to continue working together on future projects. All divers were issued participation certificates and marine life posters on the jetty during the closing ceremony that was covered by the channel 7 newsteam that was on hand for the event.

DOCT participants celebrated the successful and fun day out with a cold drink on the way back and a word of thanks from Richard Motien, DOCT’s Vice-President.
I truly hope that future projects, either initialized by the DOCT or local Thai authorities, will be as successful and fun as this one. It was refreshing to see both Thai and foreign divers working together, taking care of our precious underwater environment.

Hans Tibboel,
Environment,
Sub-Committee D.O.C.T.
Phuket Chapter
hans@doct-phuket.org