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In Topic: Similan And Surin National Parks Diving Paradises May Be Closed
2011-01-17 19:20:50
Pesche, on 2011-01-17 18:49:12, said:
Crushdepth, on 2011-01-17 16:53:14, said:
The Director General said this? How did he get his job?
There is *no* link between coral bleaching and diving. None. The presence of divers will *not* make bleaching worse. If you close the parks, this is what will happen:
* Bleaching goes unreported (no complaints => problem solved!!).
* Monitoring gets wound back, because nobody is complaining.
* Illegal fishing activity goes through the roof.
If he's worried about pollution he should get rid of the fishing boats instead. 95% of crap on the reefs is broken fishing gear.
The 90% bleaching is true of most sites I visited in the second half of last year. I would guess about 30% of that died or was badly damaged, the rest has mostly recovered now, I didn't see any bleaching remaining yesterday.
There is *no* link between coral bleaching and diving. None. The presence of divers will *not* make bleaching worse. If you close the parks, this is what will happen:
* Bleaching goes unreported (no complaints => problem solved!!).
* Monitoring gets wound back, because nobody is complaining.
* Illegal fishing activity goes through the roof.
If he's worried about pollution he should get rid of the fishing boats instead. 95% of crap on the reefs is broken fishing gear.
The 90% bleaching is true of most sites I visited in the second half of last year. I would guess about 30% of that died or was badly damaged, the rest has mostly recovered now, I didn't see any bleaching remaining yesterday.
Spot on - Couldn't agree more!!!
It is REALLY shortsighted to blame the divers! I've been running my own diving base on Ko Samet.
The ethical principles of SCUBA diving is to observe and NOT to touch nor take something from the sea!!
We say: "We dive and only leave bubbles"
We have the same symptoms here in the Phuket/Lanta archipelago! The reefs of Ko Rok is literally destroyed...
And SPECIALLY ABOUT ILLEGAL FISHING:
I've been reporting (with pictures) to the National Park Authority that on the Thursday-Market there are PARROT FISHES AND BLUE SPOTTED MANTAS for sale as food !!!!!???
They laughed and said that it also food !?
So:
1. The coral bleaching is a phenomena caused by water temperature exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (caused by mother Nature).
2. The illegal fishing goes on - ON TOP OF THE REEFS! - And the authority closes both eyes!
3. To blame the divers is real incompetence/ignorance!
But, of course we need a culprit, a scapegoat...
So blame the diving schools (witch are mostly run by Farangs)...
Pesche
Bleaching is a sign of stressed coral. The number boats and the numpber of divers with poor technique that dive these waters can and does have a stressful impact that compounds the problem. There isn't just one thing that is killing the coral but the reefs don't lie you can see the damage at any of the sites around here.
I have watched DSD customers overweighted and being literally dragged across coral beds fins scrapping (literally) across the coral as they go.
The dive industry here definitely a part of the problem but not the only part.
In Topic: Similan And Surin National Parks Diving Paradises May Be Closed
2011-01-17 18:58:46
peter58000, on 2011-01-17 18:19:02, said:
I agree that fishing boat are involved as well,but they are locals and they don't make that big money like diving schools...
Your facts are a little off on this. I was on the first boat to dive the Similans this season and there were large (very large and heavy) underwater fish traps right on the reefs. These types of traps can not be handled by small boats. When in Khao Lak harbor you see the immense size of the fishing fleets. There is BIG money involved in this industry.
In one sense the dive season protects the similan reefs from fishing boats at least for a part of the year.
The reefs here (phuket, phi phi, similans) are in quite a sad shape and dramatically more sad in the past 9 months.
The corals are stressed and there isn't just one cause this is true in much of the world not just this little part of the ocean. The whole natural fabric is stressed. Sure the dive industry could do better, so could the fishing industry, water management on the islands (Kata reef is dead) punished by the effluent stream that empties right onto the reef.
Bottom line is there are too many people in the world. We are racing towards the tipping point if we are not already there.
In Topic: Tv Question Re: Nfl Playoffs This Weekend
2011-01-14 20:44:34
BillR, on 2011-01-14 14:00:41, said:
Thanks I passed it on to my Bears fan friend.
Looks like I'm going to rent a room for the night. I actually prefer to watch these games with limited distraction.
If anyone knows of a hotel with ASN here in Phuket please let me know.
