Diving at a possible local artificial reef site we planted a few specimens using coral fragments found nearby. We will continue to survey the site to see which species thrive and which don't and in time develop the knowledge to determine what might work best on a potential local reef. We'll head back out in a week or two to check on progress and be sure to keep you updated.

Thank you to Mark Claridge, Iain Johnston, Adam Dowell, Petra Bauer-Bjorklund, James Fabbi for their help.

Celebrating World Ocean Day - Mae Haad, June 8, 2008

We've been so busy cleaning around the island supporting the community efforts of the Save Koh Tao Group that we thought it time to turn once again to our own backyard.

It was a perfect sunny day on Mae Haad beach and a group of newly certified Open Water & Advanced Open Water students joined IDCS Instructor Nathan Cook tidying up the underwater world of Mae Haad.

It was a small turnout but a valuable one. Thank you to everyone who participated.

Baseline Reef Check Survey - Lighthouse Bay June 4, 2008

Continuing our research and data collection on Koh Tao a team of Reef Check certified divers made a trip to the rarely visited Lighthouse Bay in Koh Tao's north east to conduct a baseline Reef Check survey.

Instigated by Mark Claridge of Newcastle University Uk as part of his masters study the team of 10 undertook a reconnaisance dive to determine the best location for a Reef Check Survey before setting up two transect lines to survey the bay. We chose Lighthouse Bay because of its low diver traffic and remoteness to Koh Tao's development.

It was a great day and all participants had a great time while developing important baseline data for Koh Tao. Well done guys.

All in all it was a great afternoon with more rubbish than we would like being pulled out of the ocean. More than a 6 of the local dive schools got involved and the community consciousness grows with every passing week.

Nice Work everyone!!

On a beautiful sunny day on Koh Tao we got a team of Ecodivers together to perform another Reef Check survey at Twins. We were concerned the recent poor weather might lead to difficult surveying conditions but thankfully that was not the case and a successful afternoon was had by all.

The survey marked the successful completion of another Ecodiver course on Koh Tao with Luca Giongo and Nathan Zukas being certified Ecodivers. Petra Bauer-Bjorklund who assisted is to complete hers in the next couple of days.

It was a great day out with both new & old divers having a great time and making a differnece in the process.

At a gala dinner and reception in Singapore, PADI Asia Pacific announced this years prestigous award winners. Here at Crystal we are absolutley thrilled to have won the award for "Diver Training" giving us recognition for our dedication to first-class dive trainingAt a gala dinner and reception in Singapore, PADI Asia Pacific announced this years prestigous award winners. Here at Crystal we are absolutley thrilled to have won the award for "Diver Training" giving us recognition for our dedication to first-class dive training

On a glorious, hot day in Koh Tao a group of 30 divers from all levels of experience took to the water for Earth Day. Led by PADI SI Nathan Cook at Ao Leuk Bay on Koh Tao's east coast diver's undertook a number of eco activities to ensure the day was a great success. Underwater clean ups, extensive coralwatch surveys and a full Reef Check survey were among some of the adventrures people got involved in.

The destination was chosen as Ao Leuk is the temporary home of more than 2 dozen baby turtles slated for release on some of the secluded bays around Koh Tao in the coming months. The youngest member of the day, Kailash, 5, managed to find two 'escaped' turtles and return them to their holding pen while another diver managed to rescue one baby turtle from the cluthes of an overzealous octopus.

All in all it was a very successful day and many thanks go out to Crystal Dive, Eco Koh Tao and all participants.

Divemaster Trainee Felix Sigot with his haul of trash on Dive for Earth Day

New Ecodivers on Koh Tao, April 22nd 2008

Completing another successful Reef Check Ecodiver both Crystal Dive & Eco Koh Tao are happy to announce 6 new Ecodivers on Koh Tao.

Over the course of the four days the students undertook a number of training activites culminating in a full Reef Check survey in Mango Bay on April 21, and again in Ao Leuk on April 22. Well done eveyone and happy surveying in the months & years to come.

KOH TAO FESTIVAL 2008 - March 29 PRESEVE PARADISE

A group of environmentally conscious beach goers at Crystal Dive in Sairee led by MI Justin Mayers (pictured far right).

Local boy Kailash, son of Crystal IDCS Nathan Cook with one of the baby turtles for release.

Dive shops got involved with an island wide beach & divesite clean up primarily focused on Sairee beach were the festival was being held.

Crystal Dive & Eco Koh Tao volunteered to organise a photography competition with the prize money raised donated to the Save Koh Tao Group for future environmental projects.
The festivities continued well into the evening with local cultural acts, a few live bands and some DJ's took the action until the early hours of the morning.

Crystal Dive IDCS Nathan Cook & MI Justin Mayers at their stall at the Koh Tao Festival.

Photo Competition Runner Up Photo taken by Daniel Nillson of Crystal Dive

New Ecodivers on Koh Tao, March 17 2008

Completing another successful Reef Check Ecodiver both Crystal Dive & Eco Koh Tao are happy to announce two new Ecodivers in our midst.

MSDT Instructor Alice Sowerby joined Divemaster and soon-to-be Instructor Emma Andersson for this months Ecodiver course. The course was conducted over four days culminating in a full Reef Check survey conducted at Twins by Koh Nangyuan. Congratulations ladies.
Newly certified Ecodivers Alice Sowerby & Emma Andersson

More Coralwatch on Koh Tao - March, 16 2008

Getting into the Eco spirit some new eco divers as well as some old faces took their Coralwatch cards to the reefs around Koh Tao for some simple scientific surveys. Using Project Aware's Coralwatch methodology surveys were recently conducted at Mae Haad, Twins & Japanese Gardens on Koh Tao.

Coralwatch is coordinated by Project Aware in conjunction with the University of Queensland. Recent articles have suggested that while people are enthusiastic about the method they are not receiving as much data as they had hoped. People need to submit more data and to this end Crystal Dive & Eco Koh Tao have come through again.

Coralwatch is available to anyone (diving or snorkelling) with the initiative enough to simply get involved.

March 13, 2008
- Going Green All Over

In an attempt to help the environement both in & out of the water on Koh Tao the team at Eco Koh Tao & Crystal Dive have been going to extra lengths to make a differnece.

With the introduction of their new hessian shopping bags hopefully we can reduce the number of plastic bags entering the surrounding waters.

Another ongoing and annoying problem seems to be the endless stream of cigarette butts on the beaches surrounding Koh Tao. The introduction of our Mega ashtrays will hopefully reduce the number of butts littering the beaches

Lee Davison doing his bit

March 8, 2008 - Continuing the Search
On a cloudy day divemaster trainees took to the waters off Mae Haad, Koh Tao to continue the search for a new dive site that could play host to a new artificial reef we would love to put down.
Led by PADI Staff Instructor Nathan Cook the aim of the dive was to look at the suitability of the site as a potential training location, and examine the extent and variety of marine life at the site.
We surveyed and listed numerous species with a healthy biodiversity which is fantastic considering we didn't know if we'd fin much at all. More exploration is required but it looks good so far.

February 20, 2008 - Congratulations to our new Ecodivers

With the Eco movement building at Eco Koh Tao another 6 budding Ecodivers have been certified. IDC Staff Instructors Justin Mayers & Nathan Cook conducted the course culminating in a full Reef Check survey in Mango Bay on February 19.

Ole Johan Vaeringstad, Alicia Barron, Stuart Bisson, Debbie Gottdenker, Emma Webb & Ali Young all completed the 4 day Reef Check Ecodiver course which included the PADI Project Aware Specialty course.

Reef Check is a standardised Eco-Monitoring Survey governed by Reef Check out of California, USA. By collecting data we can, over time, start to see trends and identify causes to degratdation of the marine ecosystems and environments.

Emma Webb with her Reef Check Certificate

The Save Koh Tao Beach and Underwater Clean-up in Mae Haad was a huge success. It all started with a small ceremony organized by the local government officials which included a couple of speeches, followed by the local school band playing. This was virtually all conducted in Thai with the aim to educate the local population in sound environmental & ecological practices.

he morning beach clean-up attracted many volunteers, who all helped clear the beach from Crystal Dive Resort to Sensi Paradise. Then in the afternoon 150 divers from over 15 dive schools around the island came together to conduct an underwater clean-up. They removed tons of scrap metal, plastic, engine parts, and batteries.

A Big Thank You to everybody that participated, especially the event co-ordinators Dev & Bee from New Heaven Dive Shop.

Data from the clean-up is currently being analyzed and we should have the results soon. We will be joining together again next month to clean Haad Sairee, so check back soon for the date and time if you would like to help out.

February 3, 2008 - Scoping for an Artificial Reef Site

On a sunny Sunday afternoon MSDT Nathan Cook along with Divemaster trainees Darryl Davies and Alicia took to the waters of Mae Haad and Sai Thong in what was our first foray into site selection for our artificial reef. What we were looking for is a flat, sandy bottom with a little coral around to provide some thing to look at, but not so much available to be damaged by inexperienced divers.

What we found was a fantastic location very close to the resort where quite a well developed but small reef system, that drops from 10 to 16 metres right next to extensive sand flats & a featureless bottom. It seems ideal and we were very excited by what we found.

Our second exploratory dive was a Sai Thong, just around the corner from Mae Haad. Many years ago a Tuk-tuk was sunk as the start of an artificial reef and we wanted to see if we could possibly use that ‘start’ and build on it.

But with this first exploration we have made a start and the prospects for Koh Tao’s artificial reef is very exciting.

On January 2nd, , in conjunction with the beginning of IYOR 2008 (International Year of the Reef) we will be taking our boat, & a group of dedicated divers to a local, sheltered site to conduct a few environmentally friendly, related activities. Dive site clean up some reef health surveys & a whole heap of fun is what has been planned. So if you want to do something other than just look at fish, but actually give something back to the environment in which you are receiving so much, then please email us.

The cost of the day out is 600 baht (350baht snorkelers) per person. This money will be used to cover incidental costs (boats, tanks, BBQ) & any funds left over will be donated to Project Aware.

During the course of the afternoon we will not only be cleaning the dive site, but also recording & reporting to worldwide organizations on the state of these local reefs. Using standardised methodologies we’ll be doing a Reef Check Survey & some Project Aware Coralwatch surveys. If you would like to know more about either of these there is space below to indicate this.

6 new Ecodivers emerged from the most recent Reef Check Ecodiver course on Koh Tao conducted by Eco Koh Tao & Crystal Dive. We had our best ever response with 6 candidates completing the course which concluded with the all students participating in a full Reef Check survey at Twins, one of Koh Tao's most populare local sites. We were pretty lucky really considering it is our monsoon season at the moment because the weather was ideal and for our final day we had the best conditions, both above and below the surface, for a couple of months.

All our participants were enthusiastic about the results of Reef Check survey methodology as well as PADI's relatively straightforward Coralwatch Program.

Coralwatch is conducted in conjunction with Project Aware & the University of Queensland to monitor coral reef health. During the course we conducted coralwatch surveys at both Mae Haad Reef & Twins.

In Preparation for another Reefcheck & Project Aware Course to starting on the 15th of this month, Padi Instrcutor Nathan Cook & Divemaster Nick Prest have been out on our Reef Check survey training site checking that everything is in readiness for this upcoming Ecodiver course.

Reef Check uses a standardised methodology to survey the health of reefs worldwide. With the skills these divers will learn they'll be able to take that knowledge all over the world voluntarly surveying reefs on a global scale.

The fourth quarter of the Undersea Journal has finally made it to Koh Tao and there is some great coverage of some of our recent Environmental activities including our efforts for World Ocean Day.

We organized two beach Clean ups (Sairee & Mae Haad). We also installed mooring buoys at various dive sites around the island...

On October 14th 2007, Crystal Dive conducted its second full Reef Check Ecodiver course at the resort.

DM Mark Wilkinson completed his training on October 14th culminating with his involvement in a full survey of the reef around Koh Tao with MI Justin Mayers, DM Toni Clark & MSDT Nathan Cook..