An Ongoing Battle

You wouldn’t be reading this if you didn’t already know that coral reefs are not exactly in great shape at the moment. In fact, a disconcerting 75% of the world’s reef are considered threatened. The broad consensus is that Climate Change, Overfishing and Eutrophication are the main culprits, but on a local scale, different factors can contribute significantly to these problems.

In addition to the aforementioned problems, shallow bays attracts hundreds of snorkelers daily during the high season. Unfortunately, they tend to bring feet and anchors , and only few tend to bring swimming skills or at least some common sense.

Meet Sail Rock

Sail Rock, or Hin Bhai as it is called by the locals, is arguably the best dive site in the Gulf of Thailand. It is the only structure for miles in a nutrient rich area, so it attracts all sorts of interesting visitors. From Frog Fish to Whale Sharks, nearly every pelagic or reef bound species is found here, which makes it extremely valuable from a conservation point of view.

It also attracts other visitors: In high season, divers from Koh Tao, Phangan, Samui and even as far as Chumphon flock to the rock, and on a good day up to 300 divers can share an area that is less than half a square kilometer. Most local dive operators have adopted a very sustainable way of handling their divers, but there is others.

To provide a safe ascent and descent opportunity, dive-lines need to be attached to buoys, because even very experienced divers need orientation on a choppy day. These lines are usually tied to the resident razor clam population, which is, quite frankly, a very good idea. They’re sturdy, and don’t really care whether you attach something to their base. It’s the process of tying and untying that creates the damages, so a lot of divers have already experimented with semi-permanent attachments, to reduce the stress. Unfortunately, they usually don’t last long, because they get cut by well meaning and completely ill-informed people.

Meet Mae Haad:

“In addition to providing excellent snorkeling, Mae Haad with its abundant and varied marine life and shallow coral reefs is the perfect place to learn diving or just brush up  your rusty skills.  The length of Mae Haad’s coast line is fronted by a shallow coral shelf which can vary between 50 and 100 meter wide and is divided in the center by a narrow channel  cut from the coral to allow boats, divers and snorkelers out into deeper waters without disturbing the reef . Once over the reef in deeper water, coral formations dot the length of the bay, almost like a bread crumb trail to Koh Mah.”

(http://www.chaloklumbayphangan.com/mae-haad/)

This must be from a while ago, because now Mae Haad sports about 15-35% live coral, which tends to cluster in a 5-8m strip of the outward reef.

What happened? Climate change (mass bleaching in 2010), Anchor damage, and generous trampling by snorkellers.