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UPDATED MAY 27, 2009
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April 27 – More Wonderful Whale Shark Sightings on Koh Tao Those who where lucky enough to be Diving with Eco Koh Tao this morning would have spent thier 1st dive with Koh Tao's biggest visitor of recent, a Whale Shark. The Star of the morning spent it's time cruising the waters of Chumphon Pinnacle while divers tried their hardest to capture that perfect shot. Whale sharks are the largest sharks of their kind, but despite their size they are completely harmless. Their behavior is characterized by slow swimming movements in their search for food on the water's surface. Their size and weight are a matter of speculation. The longest female ever measured was found stranded near Mangalore (India) and had a length of 12.1 m. The largest male was of the same length and was found near Mumbai (India). Photographic indices, however, allow a guess that even larger animals exist. Weight details are barely available. The heaviest specimen ever found (in March 1994) weighed 36,000 kg. |
 Recently Certified PADI OWSI at Crystal Dive Resort, Jo Inge from Norway captures the best shot of the morning. |
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April 22, 2009 - Dive for Earth Day On the 22nd of April Eco Koh Tao participated in International Earth Day. The purpose of Earth Day is to promote a healthy and sustainable environment. The globe over was conducting projects to improve the state of worlds ecosystems, whether it was underwater or on land. Eco Koh Tao joined their dive partner Crystal Dive and other schools on the island to conduct an underwater clean up. The dive site of choice was Aow Leuk which is situated on the east side of the rock. The idea, as with past clean ups, was to take anything out of the water that doesn’t belong there. 17 volunteers, which included newly qualified Open Water divers through to Instructors, took to the water to participate in the days event. The afternoon was a great success with bags of rubbish being brought up from the depths. A lot of the rubbish is a result from fishing boats mooring up in the bay and items such as clothes being blown of the boat, fast food containers being irresponsible disposed of, and run off from the Island. For more information on International Earth Day see the link below |
 Above is Dennis Leblois, an ex Crystal Dive dive master and Simone Mearde who is currently doing her Master Scuba Diver Trainer Internship. |
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MARCH 28, 2009 - Reef Building and Recycling On March 27 and 28 this month a dedicated group of volunteers joined IDS Nathan Cook for a spot of reef building in Mae Haad. Although in its infancy the Eco Koh Tao/Crystal Dive Artificial Reef Building project has generated a wealth of interest. The objective of the two day workshop was to increase the visible amount of objects on our new reef thus providing more of interest for divers. Using recycled household materials we created cement ‘shoes’ for many of your regular household items and placed them underwater. These will provide habitat for reef fish and other invertebrates, while providing substrate for the ever important growth of sessile plants and animals such as coral and algae. We decided to use sand moulds for our cement bases working on the premise that with uneven edges and sides will provide a much more adhesive surface for corals and other life that maybe be looking for somewhere to settle. |
 Our longtail loaded with recycled items ready for the ocean |
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 Fan cooled lounging area at 10 metres |
The artificial reef itself is part of a wider program to promote the use of non-natural sites for newer divers to practice their skills and master their buoyancy before being let loose on our natural sites. The idea also is to promote reuse and recycling over the destructive replacement culture that many of us live in. Stay tuned as the site continues to develop. See more at our Projects page HERE |
 Wired for sound |
March 22, 2009 – Koh Tao Festival This years Koh Tao Festival, or rather Save Koh Tao Festival was a huge success with big crowds, lots of participants and an overwhelmingly environmental focus. The main theme for this years festival was “Say No The Plastic Bags and Styrofoam” with the emphasis to promote a more eco-friendly existence on our fragile island. This year’s festival was held over two days encompassing a wide array of displays and activities. Marine Conservation Koh Tao had a booth displaying environmental projects both past and future that they have been involved with. The Save Koh Tao group projected the massage of reusable bags and containers for food and other products. On stage bands played through the night after performances from a wide variety of Koh Tao community members. The crew from Big Blue did a fantastic rendition of a Grease medley, many of the older community sang for the future preservation of Koh Tao and many dive schools participated in the Mr & Mrs Save Koh Tao pageant where contestants had to make their own costumes out of recycled materials. |
  Marine Conservation Koh Tao manager Chad Scott with some members of the local community carrying the turtles to the beach for the turtle release. |
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 Eco Koh Tao, Crystal Dive entrant for the Mr Save Koh Tao competition, James Wickham |
 One of the turtles making a break for the ocean after being released on Sairee Beach during the festival. |
The Marine Branch were instrumental in coordinating a turtle release on Sairee Beach. Ten two year old turtles were released into ocean with some smaller turtles to be raised locally for a future release. Eco Koh Tao and Crystal Dive once again took control of the Photography Competition in conjunction with Sabai Jai Eco Travel Mini Magazine. Over 35 pictures were submitted with a fantastic range of quality and diversity. The festival remains the Save Koh Tao Group’s major fundraising activity for the year allowing them to continue all the wonderful conservation work that they have been coordinating over the past few years. |
Koh Tao Festival 2009 |
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 3rd Prize Winner Hayley Jo Lean, Asia Divers |
March 21 – Sairee Sizzling, Beach and Dive Site Clean Up On a hot afternoon over 25 volunteers from Eco Koh Tao and Crystal Dive joined the Save Koh Tao community for their monthly clean up around the island. Usually held at the end of the month this one was a little early to coincide with this year’s Koh Tao Underwater World Festival. Sairee is one of Koh Tao’s busiest beaches with a large number of dive resorts, dive schools and hotels located along its 1km expanse. Divers and beach goers joined the activities but surprisingly and happily there was not a great deal of garbage to retrieve. One of the things the diver’s did notice was that garbage and other waste that has been underwater for some time is absorbed into the growing structure of the reefs. |
 Newly certified Course Director Justin Mayers surveying the salts and the sand at Sairee before the clean up |
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 Some of our beach cleaning crew on Sairee |
Old ropes and pipes often get overgrown by corals and become part of the reef itself. This is not to say that garbage is good, but it goes to show that reefs show some resilience in the face of threats like waste. Being based at Vibe Bar on Sairee beach allowed participants access to chilled water and a few beers at the conclusion of the clean up. Thank you to everyone who participated. |
 Eager divers before taking to the waters off Sairee |
March 20, 2009 – New Ecodivers and More Data It had been a few months since we have surveyed Mango Bay so it was a pleasure to get back the north shore of Koh Tao on a fine and sunny afternoon. IDCS Nathan Cook of Eco Koh Tao conducted this month’s Reef Check Course culminating in our new Ecodivers who joined the team to survey Mango Bay. Led by Instructor Iain Johnston the new Ecodivers joined some old hands through a Reef Check Eco-Monitoring Survey of the bay. Reef Check is conducted in conjunction with Reef Check California and aims to provide statistical, quantifiable data on the health of coral reefs. It is a standardized method data can be compared globally. Students who have completed their Reef Check Ecodiver training are then certified to join volunteer groups on Reef Check Surveys worldwide. We aim to provide maximum data from key indicator species aiding us in convincing policy makers that these resources need protection. |
 Reef Check Survey Team in Mango Bay. |
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 Instructor Iain Johnston doing some Project Aware Coralwatch Surveys at Mango Bay |
 New Ecodivers Tina Major, William Hunt & Sean Webb |
 Sean Webb conducting his Reef Check survey with a friendly pufferfish leading the way. |
March 5, 2009 – Eco Koh Tao leads the way again. In 2008 as a community under the banner of the Save Koh Tao Group Eco Koh Tao joined a number of dive schools and other local businesses in building the Gulf of Thailand’s largest Biorock™ structure. A huge success the Biorock continues to grow as a location of interest and for research of restoration techniques. At the Marine Conservation Branch of Save Koh Tao meeting this month all members took a vote for what would be our ‘Big’ project for 2009. A number of ideas were submitted including another Biorock and a plastic bottle island. Eco Koh Tao manager, Nathan Cook put forward the idea of Buoyancy World, and artificial site to provide another alternate site for the growing numbers of divers on Koh Tao. The aim will be to build structures giving consideration to the materials used to provide maximum habitat potential for corals and other organisms to proliferate. To promote recycling we’ll try and reuse man made waste to our advantage. After a vote of the members present Buoyancy World was the winner for this year’s new project. Details are yet to be finalised but look out for Buoyancy World coming to a bay on Koh Tao soon. |
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February 28, 2009 – Beach and Dive Site Clean Up, Mae Haad The Eco team at Crystal Dive Resort and Eco Koh Tao headed by Iain Johnston, Justin Mayers and Nathan Cook signed up over 20 willing volunteers to head off along Mae Haad beach and out into the reef to tackle the rubbish and litter that gets dropped from boats and washed up onto the shore. The Group Split into buddy teams with some on land, some offshore and some diving Mae Haad reef from the longtail. Among the rubbish brought back by are underwater team where clothes, batteries, fishing nets, corrugated iron, plastic tubing, tyres and a tripod. It was another successful day for the Crystal Eco team and the Save Koh Tao Group with over ten resorts joining forces to preserve the Island and save it for future generations. |
 Smiling participants from Eco Koh Tao and Crystal Dive after their successful clean up afternoon |
February 24, 2009 – New Divers, New Dive Sites It was a historic day on Koh Tao as for the first time student divers utilised not one but two new dive sites for their training. Nathan Cook and Iain Johnston took groups of seven and six students respectively initially to Koh Tao’s new Biorock dive site for their Open Water Training Dive 1. For dive 2 the groups moved to Big Eco Reef, a new training ground developed by Crystal Dive and Eco Koh Tao. One of the primary reasons for the development of both sites was to reduce diver pressure on some of Koh Tao’s more pristine, already busy dive sites. Both dive sites are relatively shallow with ample sand areas for new divers to perfect their buoyancy but also displaying enough of interest to make the dives both educational and enjoyable. Simultaneously Simon & Jenny Dowling, Justine Delaney & James Wickham joined divers from New Heaven Dive school and Marine Conservation Koh Tao (MCKT) in the first major day of coral fragment collecting and planting. Chad Scott of MCKT gave a detailed lecture on how to collect threatened coral fragments from the surrounding area and transplant them onto the Biorock structure. It was a very productive afternoon with much work done. Some of the team scoured off unwanted algae build up on the structure while others tried to repair the partially damaged buoy line. Hopefully these dives lead the way for more of the same in the coming months. With the weather improving every day we’ll be able to continue to reduce the pressure on many of Koh Tao’s already over burdened dive sites. |
 All the divers and instructors who took part in our historic day of firsts.  James Wickham collecting coral fragments |
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 Our transplanting team: Simon & Jenny Dowling, Justine Delaney & James Wickham |
 Simon Dowling and James Wickham attach newly found fragments to the Biorock |
