Biorock Update

Unfortunately we had a bit of a delay submerging the components (wind !) and some technical issues with the underwater transformer for the electric current, but thanks to the hard work of all the volunteers we managed to get it done !

All 5 domes (4 main ones and one smaller control dome for scientific research) and the middle connecting structures are in place.

Tomorrow the power can be connected and the low voltage current will be flowing to enhance the new coral growth.

The final step will be next week on Tuesday when coral fragments will be attached to kick start our new dive site 'HIN FAI'!

Thanks to Alex (yes you have too many toys...) the first marine life has already arrived, we are quite sure that very soon those squatters will be replaced with the real deal...

Thank you to all who have been contributing with either a donation or help with the building and sinking.

To be continued....

Biorock Construction finished

Together with Save Koh Tao (non-profit organization)and Marine Conservation Koh Tao hundreds of volunteers have worked their socks off to complete the structure of our Biorock artificial reef.

For those who are not aware of what and who Save Koh Tao (and its marine subset) are,
please follow this link with more information on the different projects numerous volunteers work on to make Koh Tao a sustainable dive destination and community.

Quickly worth to mention is that all projects are privately funded and all projects are extremely important to ensure sustainable development and NOT make the same mistakes as in Phuket or Samui for example where uncurbed development has destroyed many of the natural assets.

As far as we know, this is a unique example of a local community taking actions before it is too late, and not waiting for national governments to take action.

Reefs are deteriorating at an alarming rate worldwide due to global impact (global warming) but also due to local practices (dynamite and cyanide fishing, coastal development etc). Our community can not tackle global issues, but regional problems can be addressed to.

The reefs around Koh Tao are still in very good condition, but actions had to be taken to prevent we end up like Samui (all coastal corals died over the last 15 years due to unsustainable development), hence the biorock project.

Please log on the Biorock website www.biorock.net or www.biorock-thailand.com to see what positive effects reef construction and restoration can have.

Our reef will have 4 domes (6 m high 3 metres wide)with a center structure of 12 metres connecting all domes. A 5th smaller dome will be used as a controlling dome without power supply, as part of a research program to compare coral growth results between powered and non powered structures.

We will also keep you posted on our websites and blogspot on the progress on the project.

Here are some more photos.....

International Clean up Day

September 20th was the Project Aware International Clean Up Day with thousands of volunteers world wide 'splashing for trash'.

On Koh Tao, Scuba Junction together with Marine Conservation Koh Tao and volunteers from the local dive industry managed to pull 470 kg of rubbish out of the sea.

This was a huge 'success', apart from plastic, bottles and all sorts of other items that don't belong in the sea, also fishing nets and tyres were removed.

Abandoned fishing nets and lines keep on killing fish and marine life if not removed. Nylon is not biodegradable and is for 'life' and a continuous threat.

We hope that we also created more awareness with the local people so that future clean ups are 'less' success full.

Our next project starts tomorrow, the Biorock.

Biorock Week at Scuba Junction

A great exciting week is about to start for Scuba Junction and Koh Tao.
After almost a year of preparation, fund raising events and thanks to the support of a selected dive shops and other local businesses almost 1 million Thai Baht has been raised to finance an artificial reef on Koh Tao.
Next week (Sept 23rd until Sept 29th) the new dive site will be build and deployed.
During this week Thomas Goreau, Phd. found time in his busy agenda to stop by on Koh Tao to give his expertise with the construction and deployment.

Dr. Thomas Goreau, President of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, a non-profit organization for coral reef protection and sustainable management, has dived longer and in more coral reefs around the world than any scientist. His father was the world’s first diving marine scientist, and Dr. Goreau grew up swimming in coral reefs as soon as he could walk.
He was previously the Senior Scientific Affairs Officer at the United Nations Centre for Science and Technology for Development, in charge of global climate change and biodiversity issues. He has published around 200 papers in all areas of coral reef ecology, and on global climate change, the global carbon cycle, changes in global ocean circulation, tropical deforestation and reforestation, microbiology, marine diseases, soil science, atmospheric chemistry, community-based coastal zone management, mathematical modeling of climate records, visualizing turbulent flow around marine organisms, scientific photography, and other fields.

Biorock Week

CONSTRUCTION

Tue Sept 23- Sat Sept 27

Construction of structure

Wedn Sept 24th

SJ construction day ALL volunteers welcome (meet at SJ 9.45)

Sat Sept 27th

Mooring buoy installation on new site

Installation day

Sun Sept 28th

10.30 Buddhist Blessing Ceremony of ‘Hin Fai Fa’ (Electric Rock)

12.00 Move to location and assembly of components
Volunteer divers needed !!

19.00 After Party

Mon Sept 29th

13.00 Coral Fragment collection and transplant to Hin Fai Fa


Following supporting lecture will be giben by Dr. Thomas Goreau

Tues Sept 23th 7 pm – 8 pm Dirty Nellies (Irish Pub Mae Haed)

Coral Reef and Reef Restoration


Wed Sept 24th 7 pm – 8 pm Dirty Nellies (Irish Pub Mae Haed)

Impact of Global Warming


Thurs Sept 25th 7 pm – 8 pm Dirty Nellies (Irish Pub Mae Haed)

Sustainable development on island communities


Sat Sept 27th 7 pm – 8 pm Dirty Nellies (Irish Pub Mae Haed)

Coral Fragment Collection (attendance required to assist on Monday 29th with coral transplant to Hin Fai Fa)

House Reef Clean Up

Scuba Junction, Green Fins and Marine Conservation Koh Tao, joined forces together yesterday to conduct an Underwater Reef Clean Up on Sairee Reef.

Scuba Junction take care of the reef just off the beach in front of our dive shop, our house reef.

More than 40 volunteers in total participated, SJ had following divers joining in:

Ian, Kerry, Paul, Matt, Dan, Adrian, Tony and Deow (all SJ employees and/ or DMTs) where joined by Sophie, Myles and Yoko (SJ diving customers).

The Clean up was a 'success' with lots of plastic (which is dangerous for marine life as it can be mistaken for food), styrofoam, bottles and even a phone charger were part of about 20 kgs of garbage.

Myles found a pair of shorts smoothering a large piece of coral and was carefully removed. Hopefully this coral will be able to recover.

Reef Monitoring

Six of our DMTs participated in our latest GREEN FINS Reef Watch program.

After receiving an extensive Reef Ecology Lecture covering coral reef ecology and supporting marine life, Fran (Australia), Ian (UK), Paul and Kerry (RSA) went out diving with our Marine Conservation coordinator to collect coral reef data.

Tomorrow Matthew and Dave (both UK) will monitor a different site.

We welcome all volunteers for our monthly beach clean up (Aug 31st) which will be the next activity.

Last Monday a team of Scuba Junction also went out together with 30 other volunteers of Marine Conservation Koh Tao to restore land damage in the hills around Tanote bay.
Natural barriers were removed to create a fresh water reservoir to help alleviate the water shortages in Koh Tao in dry season, but at the same time removing natural barriers creates more run off and silt which influences the dive sites below.

In June more than 100 trees were planted and Monday small dams were built to slow down the run off and reduce the amount of silt that runs in the bay (and smothers corals).

GREEN FINS Assesment on sustainable Dive Operations

In the beginning of July, Chloe and JJ came to Koh Tao to assess GREEN FINS members on their performance in creating more sustainable and ecological friendly dive operation.
We are very proud to be a member of GREEN FINS and will continue with our support and educating our divers on how the individual can make a difference.

This is what Chloe had to say about Scuba Junction:

Dear Koen,

I would like to thank you whole heartedly for your wonderful cooperation and on going support to the Green Fins project. We are very proud to have Scuba Junction as a member of the project. We were thrilled and very encouraged by your attitude and commitment to helping the marine environment and how a dive center can have a huge influence in doing so.

The assessment results were excellent. I was extremely impressed with the attitude of your dive staff and their role model behavior under water. If you are managing to carry out Reef Watch Surveys regularly by the next assessment I can see future results being almost perfect! Keep up the brilliant work!

Wishing you the best of luck with all environmental endeavours, and remember, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions at all.

Chloe Hunt
Coordinator (Phuket)
Green Fins Project
Phuket Marine Biological Center
51 Sakdidaj Rd., Vichit
Muang, Phuket 83000
Tel : +66 76 391 - 128
Mobile : +66 862 780 483
Email: hunt.chloe@googlemail.com
Website : www.greenfins-thailand.org

Whale shark next to Scuba Junction Dive boat

Yesterday our divers got a very special treat.

THEIR OWN PRIVATE WHALESHARK RIGHT NEXT TO OUR BOAT !!!

Last week we also had a sighting but we thought that was a fluke, August is not the month we have regular sightings, but this is the second (and different one) whaleshark that was spotted in teh last 4 days, so this is not a one off anymore.

We will keep you updated on more sightings as they occur, as for now we had 11 very happy customers and 5 dive guides/instructors to share with the fun...

STOP Shark Finning in Australia

The authorities of Queensland, Australia, are planning to provide licences for shark finning on the Great Barrier Reef !

There is general consensus that shark numbers are dramatically low world wide due to over fishing, shark finning, by catch etc... Sharks are the apex predetors of the marine eco system and play a vital role in keeping the natural balance in our oceans.

Great is our concern and astonishement that in an era where we all realize that conservation of our natural resources on land and in the sea has never been higher up the political agenda, licenses like this are granted through an official governing body.

Please join the petition on line so we can persuade the Australians other wise...

Scuba Junction Beach Clean Up

High season is in full swing with the island buzzing of people. In the wake of this increase of people unfortunately also the amount of rubbish left behind dramatically increases.

On our weekly beach clean up 3 of our staff member (Tony, Alex and Koen) collected 25 kg of garbage just in a few hours.

The bulk of this was mainly glass bottles (left behind after a night of partying), cigarette butts, plastic bags. straws, batteries etc.

It goes without saying that what is left on the beach gets washed in the ocean and many items we carelessly leave behind are extremely dangerous for marine life.

Plastic bags can take upto 1000 years before nature can break them down and in the sea they are often mistaken for jelly fish which are a food source for many fish and turtles.
Plastic will never digest and slowly kills those who swallow it.

It is a bit the same story with cigarette butts which take upto 5 years for nature to break down and causes a lot of stomach damage to marine creatures who mistake this for food.

You can find more on the effects of trash and how long it takes nature to naturally desolve our garbage on the Green Fins website and on this download.

Hopefully we can all start to look out a little bit better and not carelessly leave behind garbage as it will kill many sea creature for many years to come.

Green Fins Diving on Koh Tao

JJ ,Timea and Emily


Green Fins representatives Chloe and JJ are visiting Koh Tao to assess its members and provide extra training on the Reef Watch Monitoring and Data Collection.

Yesterday morning Chloe, JJ, Emily (Padi DMT), Timea (SSI DiveCon Trainee) and myself went out to 2 dive sites to collect data.


Chumphon Pinnacle is recovering from illegal fishing and the corals don't seem to have suffered too much from the abandoned net (removed by Crystal Divers).

A healthier fish population was found around Hin Pee Wee, a less dived site on Koh Tao, which shows that controlling the number of divers is important.

Coral variety on both locations are good, all though very slight indications of bleaching and algae point to higher water temperatures and higher pollution with nutrients.

Scuba Junction will keep monitoring Koh Tao's reefs on a weekly basis, the data collected is submitted on line in the Green Fins International Reef Watch Database.

Coral Reef Monitoring

Jay, Ben and Tessa are our first PADI DMTs to start our new Coral Reef Monitoring program as part of their training with us.

Coral Reef Ecology and Coral Reef Monitoring will be integrated in our PADI Dive Master and SSI Dive Control Specialist training.

After being initiated in reef data collection techniques and coral reef ecology, they are ready now to collect data for the GREEN FINS and UNEP world wide coral reef data base. This information will help monitor the health of precious coral reefs world wide and, with the support of local governments, help implement measures to avoid future damage and reverse existing damage.

Koh Tao is already a good example of how the local community can create awareness to influence decision making politicians.
A special advisor of the Thai Prime Minister has visited Koh Tao twice this year already to listen to concerns of sustainable tourism development in the proximity of coral reefs.
The example of Phuket where local reefs get suffocated in land run off after unsupervised development is very much avoidable.

Together with GREEN FINS and our local run Marine Conservation Project Koh Tao, Scuba Junction tries to support both initiative through training, education and volunteer work.

High Season here we come...

We have been getting quite a lot of emails with questions on the 'low season' in July and whether we operate in 'low season'.

JULY AND AUGUST ARE NOT LOW SEASON ON KOH TAO, but the 2 busiest months of the year and we strongly recommend everyone that has plans to visit to pre book especially in between July 14th until August 31st as many places will be completely booked out. There will not be much accomodation left ....

Thailand has two major coast lines, the West Coast and the East Coast, with two different seasons on either coast.

The weather on the West Coast (Phuket-Krabi-Phi Phi-Similans) is influenced by the Indian Ocean which generates its annual South West Monsoon from May until September.

The East Coast (Koh Tao- Samui- Phangan) depend on weather systems in the South Chinese Sea and we have our annual North East Monsoon from November until January.

It is a general misconception to assume that rain in Phi Phi automatically means rain on the other coast as well, both seasons are different as they are being influcenced by different weather systems.

Koh Tao is lucky to be on the East Coast with already a much shorter rainy season, but also due to the shape of the island we can always find sheltered dive sites and can offer all your round diving.

Many dive operators in the West Coast are seizing there diving for July and August due to the bad weather, every body on Koh Tao operates as normal and the weather is normally fine.

Below overview might help you, but unfortunately weather is not an exact science and is hard to predict but the rain, surface and underwater conditions, waves and winds documented below have been based on many years of experience of dive shop owners here in Thailand.

You can find more info on diving conditions on Koh Tao on this link www.divingkohtaothailand.com/diving_conditions.php

Gulf of Thailand - Koh Tao

Months	Underwater	Surface
Jan-Feb	Fair/Good	Choppy
Mar-Apr	Excellent	Calm
May-Jun	Good	Choppy
Jul-Aug	Excellent	Choppy
Sep-Oct	Excellent	Calm

Nov-Dec

Poor

Rough

Andaman Sea - Similan Islands

Months	Underwater	Surface
Jan-Mar	Excellent	Calm
April	Good/Excellent	Calm/choppy
May-Oct	Poor/Fair	Rough
Nov-Dec	Fair/Good	Choppy

During this period diving the Similans is not possible and the Marine Park is closed.

West Coast- Phi Phi/Krabi/Koh Lanta

Months	Underwater	Surface
Jan-Mar	Excellent	Calm
April-Jun	Good	Choppy
Jul-Oct	Poor	Choppy
Nov-Dec	Good	Calm

GREEN FINS

We are very pleased to announce that Scuba Junction is the first dive center on Koh Tao that has been accepted as a Green Fins Member in Thailand.

Green Fins is a non profit organisation creating local awareness on coral and marine preservation through education and supporting local communities and projects.

From now on Green Fins and Scuba Junction will work together and we their support we will be able to educate and inform our divers better on what they can do to make a difference.

"Thank you for wishing to join as a Green Fins Member Operator. Green Fins is a project of the United Nations Environment Programme and last year was active in Thailand and the Philippines.

Joining Green Fins shows a commitment to maintain and, more importantly, improve environmental practices in the dive and snorkel industry. Your help in this goal is much appreciated.

As a United Nations Environment Programme project, Green Fins members are committed to improving environmental practices so to remain a Green Fins member in future means certain basic levels of good environmental practice must be achieved."

Gap year graduates

And then....

There were 4 new Dive masters graduating from Scuba Junction.

Jon (showing off his bouyancy skills) , from the UK but living in Switzerland (yeah, yeah we know why...) , Event Coordinator.


Dan, UK, Broker (the worse* half of Laura…)

Laura, UK, Marketing manager (better half of Dan..)







Kurt (look at the muscles ladies...) Detective with Birmingham Police (we won’t tell any one what you were up to during these 6 weeks with us…)


It was a pleasure having you around , and I should not forget Phillippe and Ben who will finish very soon as well. You were a great bunch of people, all very good confident Dive Pros now and a great example for our new DMTS.
I wish you good luck in the diving world and I am sure our paths will cross again under or above the water.
K.

*not funny but I can not help myself….

PS: All of them have joined our facebook group so you will be able to ask them in person about their experience…..

New beginning

Due to an error our previous blogspot is not accessible anymore, but no problem we will not keep you in the cold on what is going on in Scuba Junction and on Koh Tao.

I can not see a better way than to kick off with mentioning Kim Tiffin. Kim came to do his diving course in September last year and got immediately hooked.

After finishing also his Advanced Course and Deep and Nitrox Specialty, Kim went on diving in Egypt and even in England, to come back to Koh Tao and Scuba Jucntion to completed his Master Diver Certification.

This is what he wrote:

"Hello to every one at Scuba Junction, I just want to say thankyou for a great time.

Thanks to Kay for his help (and patience) in advicing me in buying my dive gear.

After Koh Tao I had agood time in similan islands lots turtles, lepard sharks ,a nice big manta ray, but no whale shark.

Once again big thanks for all the help in my dive courses diving. i wouldnt go

any where else in the world ,for training-or dive courses

you run a very professional and safe school.

i hope too see you all soon."

Thank you Kim for your kind words and we all are very proud to have been a part in your discovery of your new hobby and passion.

Everyone at Sj wishes you many happy bubbles...