One of our main projects for 2009 was the development of our own in-house artificial reef currently known as Junkyard Reef adjacent to the dive school at Crystal Dive in Mae Haad.

As the year progressed it developed into an excellent location with numerous organisms moving in to take advantage of new real estate and other symbiotic ecological opportunities. Recently on a night dive I even noticed cleaner shrimps had developed cleaning stations in two locations. New coral have recruited to complement those grown in our nursery and fish continue to move in creating greater diversity of species. For a previously barren area it is teeming with life.

This year we want to expand our efforts to track and monitor the changes to Junkyard Reef. We have recently began monitoring the growth of the coral nurseries to track their development.

More recently Kyle Friesen put his divemaster training to good use to help us develop an a fish and invertebrate diversity and abundance survey for Junkyard Reef. The coral monitoring is excellent but sometime requires individuals with more detailed reef knowledge. The fish and invertebrate survey is a great way for beginners and budding ecologists to get involved in our environmental and monitoring activities.

We also hope to expand the structural diversity at Junkyard to turn it into a really exciting location and an even better training ground for new divers.