It has been a busy year in the Eco department at Crystal Dive and Eco Koh Tao with the deployment of Buoyancy World and the subsequent arrangement. Our Reef Check surveys have almost taken a back seat.

Thankfully we got back on board with another Reef Check survey at Twins today. Newly certified MSDT Matt Spaulding of the USA joined certified Ecodivers, Simon & Jenny Dowling, Tina Major and IDCS Nathan Cook to complete his training by surveying Twins.

We put down two 100 metre long transect lines and spent a good couple of hours counting ‘indicator species’ along those transect lines. Reef Check Ecological monitoring is considered ‘Eco-holistic’ as it tries to incorporate all aspects of the ecosystem – fish, invertebrates & substrate.

The surveys we conduct have been made even more robust by incorporating local indicator species using the Save Koh Tao’s Ecological Monitoring Program (EMP) Template. So as a result at the end of the survey we submit data to Reef Check in California (after verification by our team scientist in Bangkok). We also submit data locally to the Save Koh Tao Group.

Thanks to all who participated and I look forward to seeing you on the next Reef Check course in early March