Batfish
Contributor
Erm.. I think the Bangkok post has got this story about 7 months late... Story published on November 11th, but says "death of soft, multi-coloured coral reefs at Hin Muang and Hin Daeng diving sites earlier this month"..
Dead Coral - Hin Daeng and Ko Ha
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BlueViewDivers
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Hin Daeng and Muang suffered during the early months of 2007 when algal bloom or red tide hit the dive sites of the Andaman Sea.
Dive operators on Koh Phi Phi have resumed their trips to Hin Daeng and Muang and the coral growth there has brought the site back to 70% of what it was before the damage.
Dive sites around Koh Phi Phi were also badly affected by red tide but there is no damage visible to any coral on any of the local dive sites.
Mantas and Whale Sharks have been spotted very recently in Hin Daeng and Muang and it is regenerating back to it's original state.
Dive operators on Koh Phi Phi have resumed their trips to Hin Daeng and Muang and the coral growth there has brought the site back to 70% of what it was before the damage.
Dive sites around Koh Phi Phi were also badly affected by red tide but there is no damage visible to any coral on any of the local dive sites.
Mantas and Whale Sharks have been spotted very recently in Hin Daeng and Muang and it is regenerating back to it's original state.
Hin Daeng's been awesome this season - plenty of Mantas about, and ghost pipefish, mantis shrimp, octopus, barracuda etc............
Yes, Hin Daeng is nice diving, but still not as lovely as it once was. Hin Muang, OTOH, is now essentially barren--just rocks with little life. Not even a shadow of its former glory, unfortunately. I suppose this has to do with the relative depth of the sites. Since Hin Daeng is shallower, it was able to rebound pretty well and now supports a healthy population of both corals and fish. Most of the marine life that can swim seems to have migrated over from Hin Muang to Hin Daeng.
bcdannymalone
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Such a shame. I was there in Nov. and Hin Muang had been hit really hard, but Hin Daeng seemed pretty much undamaged. Hopefully, they will recover as these sites were once truly stunning.
Was there in january and lots of manta action on both HD and HM, but, HM is as stated earlier, a barren rock these days. It used to be one of the most vibrant and colorful soft coral sites in the world. Truly a pity. It will take many, many years for it to recover. It can still be worth it though considered you have the luck to see somethinmg big. HD wasn't as badly hit and is still beatiful in places.
This is what Hin Mouang looks like nowadays:
This is what Hin Mouang looks like nowadays:
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MoonWrasse
Contributor
Well, at least the mantas still hang around, so there must be something alive there.
(Nice picture)
(Nice picture)
I remember when I used to dive in the southern Red Sea (towards Yemen), now and again you would hear the distant "crack"of a stick of dynamite going off. Light it, pop it in a bottle, drop then paddle back to pick up the floaters. Could such methods produce whats been seen here?
stevenl
Contributor
No, that is not the reason, see earlier in the thread
Call me cynical, but I was diving Hin Daeng and Hin Muang arround the time of the 'mysterious' death of all the coral and have been diving there regularly since. In fact, I dived there on several days either side of the incident and wish to make a few points...
- The saturday before it happened there were lots of coral, reef fish, 'small' pelagics (barracuda etc..). Awesome diving
- Friday, our captain received a radio call from another boat stating that there were fish 'on top of the water' around Hin Daeng
- 5 days later most of the soft coral (although 'wilting') was still there but there were no fish anywhere...anywhere!!
- 1 month later the small pelagics were coming back but there were very few reef fish (except moray eels, a few leopard sharks, and rays). The soft corals, hard corals & sea fans were all dead or very close to it and strangely almost all the sea stars were looking as though they had been 'emptied' with only 'skins' remaining
All of the above suggested to me at the time that had been a cataclysmic incident (with the suspicion very obviously falling on explosive fishing techniques). Various 'reports' have suggested algie blooms and red tide. Now, if this is the case, then the coral would be first to suffer with the fish then having problems following on from that. This would take at least several weeks.
I understand that the groups doing 'official' reports into the incident have no wish to implicate fishermen (especially Thai fishermen), but another point to note....why did most fish that have swim bladders disappear whereas those without seemed to by enlarge survive? Does a certain type of fishing cause such a phenomenon. I'll let you look into that yourselves as the people dealing with the report seemed to forget.
Finally, I was last at Hin Muang at the end of April. We had some awesome diving on both Hin Daeng and Hin Muang with manta showing off, and massive amounts of pelagics on both sites. The sites ARE recovering, and though Hin Muang is still pretty bare below 15m (above is still magnificent by the way), in clear water the topography and number of pelagics still makes for very impressed customers!
Unfortunately, as we were leaving a large fishing boat appeared, moored onto Hin Muang and we watched as they prepared their nets and started to fish the site even though we radio'd them and threatened to report them to the authorities. And herein lies the problem. 4 of our customers e-mailed the relevant authorities for the Lanta National Park (with photos and video) and received absolutely nothing in reply. Do they care?
How do you fight that?
- The saturday before it happened there were lots of coral, reef fish, 'small' pelagics (barracuda etc..). Awesome diving
- Friday, our captain received a radio call from another boat stating that there were fish 'on top of the water' around Hin Daeng
- 5 days later most of the soft coral (although 'wilting') was still there but there were no fish anywhere...anywhere!!
- 1 month later the small pelagics were coming back but there were very few reef fish (except moray eels, a few leopard sharks, and rays). The soft corals, hard corals & sea fans were all dead or very close to it and strangely almost all the sea stars were looking as though they had been 'emptied' with only 'skins' remaining
All of the above suggested to me at the time that had been a cataclysmic incident (with the suspicion very obviously falling on explosive fishing techniques). Various 'reports' have suggested algie blooms and red tide. Now, if this is the case, then the coral would be first to suffer with the fish then having problems following on from that. This would take at least several weeks.
I understand that the groups doing 'official' reports into the incident have no wish to implicate fishermen (especially Thai fishermen), but another point to note....why did most fish that have swim bladders disappear whereas those without seemed to by enlarge survive? Does a certain type of fishing cause such a phenomenon. I'll let you look into that yourselves as the people dealing with the report seemed to forget.
Finally, I was last at Hin Muang at the end of April. We had some awesome diving on both Hin Daeng and Hin Muang with manta showing off, and massive amounts of pelagics on both sites. The sites ARE recovering, and though Hin Muang is still pretty bare below 15m (above is still magnificent by the way), in clear water the topography and number of pelagics still makes for very impressed customers!
Unfortunately, as we were leaving a large fishing boat appeared, moored onto Hin Muang and we watched as they prepared their nets and started to fish the site even though we radio'd them and threatened to report them to the authorities. And herein lies the problem. 4 of our customers e-mailed the relevant authorities for the Lanta National Park (with photos and video) and received absolutely nothing in reply. Do they care?
How do you fight that?
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