Andaman Closures?

[bushman66]

Ugh...hopefully it won't close, planning on being out there in a couple of months... :depressed:

 

[Batfish]

"We are still finding tourist trash, such as empty water bottles, beer cans and snack packets floating inside the parks,”

Oh it's tourist trash, riiight.

All dive shops are freaking out today... the bleaching in some places is quite bad, and guess what, the smart tour leaders on dive boats are skipping those bits like they skipped the bits that had suffered damage in the tsunami. And Koh Tachai/Richelieu Rock/Elephant Head, sites like this - looking great. I have had just as many happy people coming back from trips as last season. Lots of manta rays have helped with that!

Shutting down the reefs to divers. Not going to help, in fact, going to cause huge problems, massive job losses, huge loss of income for the area...

And I have a feeling someone is whispering in some ears "er... dude, shhh ... we close the park, we lose like a billion Baht in national park fees".

As for fishing boats, ongoing issue. To Thailand, fishing is WAY more important than diving. Just like divers, fishing is nothing to do with bleaching either but fishing boats do not give a crap about reefs so long as they catch fish.

Let's see what happens shall we?

 

[Quero]

Of course everybody's freaking out today! I've spent hours answering worried emails from customers and I expect everybody else in the industry is similarly busy at their keyboards.

My main message to my divers is nearly identical to this:

...the bleaching in some places is quite bad, and guess what, the smart tour leaders on dive boats are skipping those bits like they skipped the bits that had suffered damage in the tsunami. And Koh Tachai/Richelieu Rock/Elephant Head, sites like this - looking great. I have had just as many happy people coming back from trips as last season. Lots of manta rays have helped with that! Let's see what happens shall we?

I don't believe the parks will be closed down entirely, and the dive boats will seek out the best alternative sites to any that are declared off limits. It would seem most likely that many of the areas considered for closure are snorkel sites such as those at North Surin and Tachai Reef rather than the most often visited dive sites.

 

[aquamarin]

Well, yes there is bleaching. I was on our boat 5 days in December and of course I saw a difference in the shallow areas. Apart from the bleaching, I also noticed more fish than previous years - they love the algae.

We've seen lots of mantas this season. Yes, our tourleader has changed the schedule accordingly, and we now skip some of the popular dive sites, but there are plenty of great sites out there. Our guests have ALL loved the diving. We have several bookings for March and April for guests who came with us November and December. They loved it and they're coming back for more.

Also, coral bleaching is not a new phenomenon - it's happened before and it will happen again. After the El Nino bleaching there was a lot of panic, but the corals took much less time to recover than feared. It's sad to see the bleaching, but people who have never dived/snorkeled the Similans find it amazing out there - and guests who've been with us before have not quite understood "all the fuss" (that's a quote from someone who's been on our boat 4 times in 1,5 years)

Are they going to close the parks? I don't think so, I don't know and I'm not losing any sleep over it yet. I'll wait and see what happens......

Karin

 

[Buadhai]

From The Bangkok Post

Dept presses ahead with dive site closure

The Marine and Coastal Resources Department is pressing ahead with a plan to close 10 popular diving sites in five provinces to limit the impact of tourism on severely damaged coral.

Department chief Kasemsun Chinnavaso said yesterday he had forwarded the proposal to the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, which supervises the affected marine national parks.

The diving sites facing temporary closure to allow coral to recover from bleaching are located in Hat Nopparattara-Mu Koh Phi Phi National Park in Krabi; Mu Koh Surin Marine National Park (Phangnga); Mu Koh Rang National Park (Trat); Koh Tao (Surat Thani); and Koh Pai and Koh Kang Kao (Chon Buri).

The department proposed earlier this week that the sites, which attract about one million tourists a year, be declared off-limits. The proposal has been met with strong resistance from diving operators and the tourism industry.

Mr Kasemsun, however, is standing firm on the plan, which received the backing of Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkiti.

The department has alerted all related agencies, including local administrative bodies, about the coral bleaching and recommended rehabilitation measures, Mr Kasemsun said.

"If related agencies refuse to comply with our recommendations, then they should take responsibility for the severe damage to the marine environment and future economic losses," he said.

Niphon Phongsuwan, the department's senior marine biologist, said the coral bleaching, which began early last year, was the worst in 20 years.

Scientists believe the main cause of the bleaching is the warming of the oceans, which forces zooxanthallae, an algae which coexists with the coral and gives it colour, to extract itself from the coral.

Many coral reefs in the Andaman Sea have turned a pale yellow or white colour and gradually died.

Less than 1% of coral affected by coral bleaching at Koh Phi Phi, Mu Koh Surin and Mu Koh Similan had recovered.

The staghorn is the worst-hit coral species because it is sensitive to warm water. However, staghorn coral need a shorter time to recover than pachyseris, which requires at least 20 years.

Pachyseris live about 30 metres below the sea surface.

Thailand has 96,000 rai of coral reef, half of which is in the Andaman Sea with more than 90% of the coral reef suffering bleaching.

 

[Quero]

Judging by this news report, it looks like these are indeed areas visited by snorkel boats. In the Andaman, I am guessing Bamboo Island near Phi Phi and Koh Surin Nua (north).

 

[watboy]

Leave it to the Thai government to annouce sweeping policies without any details and creating mass confusion and uncertainty. Thanks to a culture that doesn't promote open discussion, we get, half baked, poorly thought out, policy initiatives, however well intended. Then we have a culture of face saving, preventing people from backing down from their position. You would hope that they would at least let this season end and have discussion on what to do about next season.

 

[Quero]

Watboy, I guess as a Thai raised abroad you have a particularly interesting take on the various factors involved.

In one of my cultures, we have a saying: as the cart travels down the road, the pumpkins settle. It sort of means everybody adapts to one another. In this case, the ministry will make some adaptation so as not to harm the tourism sector irreparably by limiting the closures to selected areas; the tour operators will adapt by finding different areas to visit; scuba diving operations will adapt by helping to educate our guests to the cycles of bleaching and renewal, perhaps getting them involved in monitoring of reefs.

 

[watboy]

I know the thai way is to compromise and adapt, but its also the thai way for Poo Yai's to just make unilateral decrees instead of any form of concensus building. And I believe this results in the gov't unncessarily creating confusion and uncertainty when it drops these policy bombs. Compromises will be made, but why can't they do this before tourists see in the headlines "Similans Closed"?

 

[LawrenceAlexWu]

It's not only the Thailand side that's looking at similar closures though...Malaysia did this only a few months ago.

Similan And Surin National Parks Diving Paradises May Be Closed - Thailand Forum