| July 11, 2009 - Protecting the Future of Koh Tao |
The sustainable development of Koh Tao has been a movement gaining momentum on our tiny island in the Gulf of Thailand. One of the proposed projects recently given the go ahead is the construction of a wind turbine on one of the remote hills on the south-east of the island.
On principle it sounds like a great and very ‘forward thinking’ idea for such a small remote community and it is. The concern remains the methods with which its construction plans to be carried out. A new pier and new road are being constructed on one of Koh Tao’s few unchartered areas in Lang Khaai Bay. Ask most locals on Koh Tao where Lang Khaai Bay is and you’ll receive many blank looks illustrating a remoteness difficult to find on a 21 sq km island.
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MSDT Debbie Gottdenker and her Reef Check slate during the survey of Kang Khaai Bay. Her first comments after the dive, " I can't believe we never dive here it's so beautiful" |
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In an attempt to create some baseline information about the location Eco Koh Tao and some of its members teamed up with Marine Conservation Koh Tao to survey this rarely visited destination. Over the course of the morning the team of 8 conducted 7 transect surveys at 2 metre depth intervals –16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6 & 4 metres – using the Koh Tao EMP (Ecological Monitoring Program) protocols. We also took photographic evidence and some video footage of the area to create a digital record of the bay prior to any disturbance.
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An example of the very old pristine table corals that are a regular feature of Lang Khaai Bay. |
For a group of experienced divers it was the first time and of us had dived in Lang Khaai Bay and it was stunning. A fantastic variety of massive corals, soft corals and very old table corals which were exacerbated by great visibility. Hopefully any future development will have minimal impact on this beautiful bay but with the scale of the construction planned it is hard to see how a great deal of damage can be avoided. Especially as no one really knows about it. |
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Thank you to those members of Eco Koh Tao who helped out today: Debbie Gottdenker, Tina Major and Nathan Cook and videographer Hiroshi Nagao from Deep Down Productions. |
