Fish tanks for the Gulf

Artificial reefs made from old tanks to support the Gulfs marine life.

Under an initiative by Her Majesty the Queen, the Royal Thai Army handed over 25 old tanks to the Department of Fisheries.  This was reported by the Bangkok Post yesterday.

The old T69-2 tanks will serve their final time underwater, where this battalion will form an artificial reef and provide a breeding ground for marine life in the Gulf of Thailand.

Picture from The Bangkok Post

Some of the retired tanks were transported yesterday from a military camp in Nakhon Ratchasima to Klong Toey Port in Bangkok.  The rest will follow this weekend and Monday.  

From here, they will all be shipped and placed in to a military compound in  Narathiwat before being dumped into the Gulf of Thailand of Narathiwat and Pattani.

The sunken tanks should help sustain the local fisheries in the region and also these new artificial reefs will become an excellent opportunity for divers to explore them and to do some brilliant wreck diving.

Hopefully there are more old tanks left, so one day - lets hope in the near future -  we can see some of them in the waters around the beautiful Koh Chang Archipelago. 

And who knows, we too could be diving in a similar underwater landscape in the near future.

Original picture from The Nation

Happy Bubbles!

Playing the waiting game

The last couple of days we've seen the worst weather on Koh Chang we've had in a very long time.  This was caused by  tropical storm CHANTHU in the South China Sea.  All this resulted in a massive amount of rainfall and a very choppy sea.   

Luckily, Rick, a Canandian Teacher who signed up for his PADI Open Water Course has got time on his hand and so we can play the waiting game!  So far we've finished the Knowledge Development and the Confined Water dives which leaves us with the four open water dives after the weekend.  

The forecast is looking better for the next couple of days and hopefully we can get some nice dives at the Koh Rang National Marine Park.  Despite the bad weather a couple of snorkelers said visibility is still around 10-15m and there is plenty of marine life to be seen!

Just before we got hit by the bad weather, Dmitry,currently living in Bangkok, succeeded in his PADI Advanced Open Water Course.  After we've completed the complementary deep- and navigation dive, Dmitry chose for the Search and Recovery dive, followed by Digital Underwater Photography and an Enriched Air dive.  During one of the dives we encountered a small octopus which was hiding in a shell and started playing hide and seek with us.  We tried holding an Dutch and a Spanish football shirt in front of this lovely creature, but it couldn't be bothered. 

Octopus in shell - Photo by RAD

Almost halve way through the rainy season, I can only wish that the other half will be the same as the first part, giving us plenty of good dives and wonderful encounters.  As for now...

Happy Bubbles!

Excellent green season diving conditions at Koh Chang

The last couple of weeks we have been blessed with rather excellent weather here at Koh Chang.  This results in great diving conditions at all dive sites.
DivingScool's divers visited the National Marine Park several times last week and  they all came back with huge smiles on their faces!  Good visibility, plenty of fish, the return of color on the corals and some remarkable sightings from baby sharks to huge Queen helmet shells makes the diving more than worth wile this time of the year.

Queen helmet shell...Pic from Zubi

Some sad news has to be mentioned as well, last week several carcasses of dolphins have been found on the beaches of Klong Prao.  Fishermen who, presumably, had caught it had cut the meat off, leaving the head, tail and guts.  Local fishermen have filed complaints against Vietnamese ships fishing in their local waters, whether their presence and the death of the dolphins is related has yet to be determined, but I've never heard of Thais killing dolphins for food.  Hopefully it stays to nine unfortunate dolphins that have been counted so far and that everyone can enjoy their presence around Koh Chang and its neighbouring islands.

One of the dolphins found on Klong Prao Beach...Pic from Ian

To round up I would like to mention that DivingScool Koh Chang is participating in the Annual Underwater Clean Up together with Project AWARE which will be on the 25th September 2010.  More information about this event will follow soon.  Please check out some of our current excellent promotions!

As for now...

Happy Bubbles