July started with us braving some strong winds around the islands of Pattaya to start our coral gardening project, We began by setting up a little test area in Koh Sak and planted just a few small corals onto our man made structures. These coral fragments were taken from the east side of Koh Sak where there seems to be patches of damaged staghorn corals caused by boats mooring too close to the reefs.
All through July we have been backwards and forwards to check on the corals on the artificial reef and we believe an 80% success rate of them surviving is not too shabby for our first try.
We then took a trip to Dive Tribes lab where we have a few sharks that are prepared with tags ready for a release program and are continued to be studied by Dive Tribe .The next day students helped with the safe transport of the sharks onto our waiting dive boat and then proceeded to release them onto the reefs around Koh Sak. We try to release them in areas where fishing trawlers and boats can not get in , this gives them protection and good feeding grounds.
Was the course a success ? Well we believe so and this month (August) Dive Tribe have been working with a student from Australia conducting more studies into behaviours and post by-catch survival rates using a variety of methods.
We still need help monitoring corals, installing transect lines and working on the reefs so if you would like to dive very cheaply and help us out , please get in touch with us on our Contact Us page.
If you do notice the mooring is missing at any time during your dives around Pattaya please get in touch with us HERE, and let us know the date when you noticed the buoy was missing.
Remember if you want to learn to dive or get involved in any of our marine conservation activities just get in touch HERE, by choosing us we can offer cut price dive courses and you will dive with one of the most ecologically aware and conservation minded divers on the planet. By diving with us you have made a conscious effort to "PROTECT AND PRESERVE" our marine environment.
A video of Julys work can be seen HERE Please watch and leave a comment