One of our major projects at Eco Koh Tao for 2009 was the establishment of an in-house reef adjacent to the dive school in Mae Haad. It was started by a dedicated band of divers in February using nothing but some old household appliances and furniture, a bit of cement and a beach to provide the sand moulds for our bases.
Over the course of a few days objects were designed and developed and using the extensive logistical expertise of a longtail boat and a bit of rope we hauled the structures about 300 metres off shore and sunk them in 10 metres of water. |
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Some of the first structures put down at Junkyard reef |
Shelving, televisions, chairs and tables, standing fans all provided the focus of what became known as Junkyard Reef. We developed our own prototype buoy line and anchoring system for the site so that we could moor up our boats and use it for our dive schedules.
Over the past 12 months the site has developed a little ecology of its own as organisms have moved into this new ‘real estate’ and started to create a working ecosystem. Fish were the first to move in and we’ve watch many grow and develop, especially a very small harlequin sweetlips that is now a fully fledged ‘teenager’. Invertebrates weren’t too far behind but the biggest surprise has been the natural recruitment of some hard corals to the site. |
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Some of the invertebrates and fish that have moved in to inhabit Junyard Reef. TIger Cowry shell (top left), an inquisitive filefish (top right). Our teenage harlequin sweetlips who has been growing there for about 6 months now and a young blenny (bottom right) poking its head out of a pipe. |
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| To aid coral recruitment we have also developed a couple of different methods of simple mid-water coral nurseries in which the corals have grown extremely well. Some of the ‘baby’ corals have developed from fragments found in the surrounding area. Others have been picked up from nearby reefs where nets and other fishing gear had killed much marine life but also broken some of the corals. These fragments were transplanted to our nursery site have developed very well. |
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Surveying one of our mid-water coral nurseries at Junkyard Reef. |
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| The two photos above illustrate the enormous amount of life simply on our buoy line. Left is a colony of clear/transparent ascidians (an invertebrate colonial sea squirt) and some colonial anemones. To the right you have two different colonies of colonial ascidians and new colony of hard acropora sp coral. |
One of my favourite picture shows our first naturally
recruited coral colony at Junkyard Reef. A small colony of
acropora sp. growing on a set of shelves in the middle of the site.
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None of this work would have been possible without the help of numerous divemasters, divemaster trainees, instructors and other volunteers helping to develop and expand the site into what it is today. The site has been used for recreational dives, Advanced Open Water course dives, Open Water course dives, night dives and has been dived by many from the beach as it provides an interesting and readily accessible site.
In 2010 we hope to develop Junkyard Reef in many ways:
- expanding the physical structure of the site
- transplanting our grown corals from the nurseries to these structures
- developing new coral nurseries
- improving monitoring techniques over those nurseries
- Improving monitoring of fish and invertebrates for the site
- Using it more regularly for entry level divers and courses with limited objectives requiring extensive natural reef environments
So hopefully you can join us on your next visit and help to develop your own piece of history.
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