As part of our eco activities Eco Koh Tao conducted a Project Aware course on Koh Tao. The Project Aware course is designed as a non-diving specialty but considering most of our participants are divers we included a couple of dives to go with the course.

We were lucky enough to score a dive trip to two of Koh Tao’s premier dive sites – Southwest Pinnacle and Chumphon Pinnacle, both deep sites with a wide variety of marine life.

Before the two dives participants Han, Ling & Steve were given the task of observing these two location and determining two things – how do the deep sites differ from our shallow, fringing reef sites and what threats or pressures do they face. After the first dive they correctly observed that the deeper sites are home to a wider variety of soft corals and other invertebrates that, unlike hard, stony corals, do not require as much of the suns energy to proliferate. It was also pointed out that overfishing was the major threat to these sites as a number of old fish traps and netting were observed on the site.

As if to illustrate the point in the clearest manner possible upon descent at our second site, Chumpon Pinnacle, we found the top of the rock draped in recently discarded fishing nets and full of dead or dying fish. Taking the opportunity to do some good we spent the entire dive clearing what net we could from the site but it was going to take more time and air than we had.

As if to illustrate the reefs resilience and the magnificent biodiversity of our local reefs a young 4 metre long Whale Shark was spotted during the dive, a real treat for everyone during the monsoon months when poor visibility and sometimes windy weather can be less than exciting.