Christmas Love and Wishes to All

Blue View Divers clean up regularly...

Blue View Divers has recently started daily beach clean-ups during our surface intervals when out diving for the day. Particularly around Maya Bay (given its shape and location) a lot of plastic, styrofoam and other non-biodegradable debris is washed up onto the beaches from the surrounding areas. Note to tourists: this is a marine park please stop throwing your cigarettes, bottles etc. off the boats!!!



So far we are very encouraged by the response this has been eliciting from other people unrelated to the dive school on the beaches at these times...many come up and thank us, and some even ask is they can help us and join in!!! Generally we can fill a black bin liner in under 10 minutes, and it comes back with us to the island where it is disposed of appropriately.

Phi Phi Clean-up Days...

On the occassion of H.M. King Bhumibol, who truly inspires and works with and for his people's, 80th birthday Ko Phi Phi hosted a 3 day clean-up operation. (A small trivia aside: King Bhumibol, the 9th King of Thailand, is the longest reigning monarch in world history).

On day 1 (3rd December) Ya, Linda (a customer who had been diving with us for a number of weeks) and I joined the Coral Transplantation Group. Approx. 10 months ago Andrew Hewitt (of the Adventure Club and Phi Phi Dive Camp) in partnership with the Phuket Marine Biological Center, the National Institute of Oceanography in Israel, and supported by the European Commission created a coral nursery near Phi Phi Ley. The nursery consists of racks and mesh trays suspended above the substrate, allowing juvenile coral fragments removed from donor colonies to grow with a reduced threat from sedimentation and corallivoes.

Rehabilitation sites (between the depths of 6 and 13 metres on the site of Table Coral City)had been marked out for us with small buoys and string and photographed. The transplantation involves locating natural burrows in the hard substrate (or large dead corals) and then using a nail and hammer, or handscrew, to enlarge the burrow to the size of the coral fragment's lower tip (which is enclosed in a plastic tube). Approx. 1 inch of this lower tip is inserted into the hole with the living part of the coral fragment then touching the substrate. A bamboo stick may also be inserted as a wedge to ensure that the fragment stays tightly in place against water motion and fish attempting to feed. If properly installed the fragments start to build a calcium carbonate base and attach themselves to the substrate within one month. These juvenile fragments will grow and in time fuse together.














On the more experiential aspect of this we had a great time although this was HARD work!!! A 103 minute dive and 87 minute dive later I was pretty achey. The increased resistance of water as opposed to air means that hammering into hard substrate takes some doing!!!And on land I guess I must use my weight or body as resistance when I'm using a screw, so it was trial and error working out how to do so underwater where in effect I was weightless!! Once I had the technique though I was pretty satisfied with my efforts, and Linda's assistance in passing me all the tools I needed whilst maintaining neutral buoyancy. We also had to ensure that the fragments are inserted not too near living or different types of coral as these may actually attack each other...

Day 2 involved Lisa, Tee and Bell joining the Long Beach dive site clean-up, bringing up marine debris.

Day 3: Keira, Bell and Tee were involved in cleaning up the underwater tsunami memorial and then in the release of clownfish (nemo's) into vacant anemones. Around 1000 clownfish were shipped over from a Krabi fish farm and divers took them down in jamjars, located anemones with no clownfish living in them and introduced them hoping for appropriate habitat and the ensuing symbiotic relationship. Bell in particular loved this day, and I quite wish I could have gone along too!!!

Catch up from the tiny tropical island

Well I've been somewhat lax again at keeping this updated eh? I have been back in Thailand, living on Ko Phi Phi again since mid-september being a professional beach bum and scuba instructor again (working at Blue View Divers)...it is sooo much better than splendid!!! It's been my birthday, Ya's birthday, Loy Kratong and general happy,happy, joy,joy times. I've taught many a fun person to dive too and will get round to writing more soonest!! However as of tomorrow we are involved in a 3 day clean-up operation in celebration of the King's birthday here, tomorrow I'm out transplanting juvenile corals from the artificial reef for starters...will let you know how it all goes but in the meantime here's a few shots from so far...

Leopard Shark





Lionfish


One of my Open Water students (Anne-Marie) with a Hawksbill Turtle


Little Tigertail Seahorse I found on Palong North


Lisa, Cian, Me, Ya, P Nok and Vou dog



Ya and Vou dog