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Thanks for sharing your first-hand account of diving in Thailand. I think they should aggressively pursue coral planting. They are several projects in Indones

by throwaway2037 2mo ago

Thanks for sharing your first-hand account of diving in Thailand. I think they should aggressively pursue coral planting. They are several projects in Indonesia that have demonstrated excellent results. I volunteered for a day doing coral planting in Bali, Indonesia. As part of the dive, they take you to different parts of the coral reef as it recovers, showing you how it changes year after year. You can see the change with your own eyes.

wraptile 2mo ago
I agree though we had very mid results here in the Gulf of Thailand while the Andaman Sea side has had more luck. The issue with Gulf of Thailand is that it's just so shallow with avg depth of only 50m and too calm making new coral growth very hard with existing techniques. There's some new promising research on alternative methods of raising coral larva in labs, but I'm not up to speed with that yet and it seems quite complex.
- bbondo 2mo ago
  Have any areas in GoT shown recovery from blasting and/or bleaching without human intervention? I have fond memories of Koh Tao circa 2009...
  - wraptile 2mo ago
    Koh Tao is definitely not doing great compared to 2009 though there is some bounce back lately. I just moved from there to Koh Chang which despite poor visibility still has a lot of absolutely stunning untouched corals though unlike Koh Tao it takes an hour-long boat ride to get out there. Koh Phangan recently made news on massive natural recovery, so there's a lot of hope in the Gulf of Thailand still!
randoomed 2mo ago
Mossy earth has been doing a (i think quite successful) restoration of an coral area damaged by bomb fishing in indonesia. Here is a 2 year recap of the program and the result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0bkMhhMHOw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0bkMhhMHOw
- throwaway2037 2mo ago
  Hat tip. I'm pretty sure their sites are in Nusa Penida which is a short ferry ride from Bali, Indonesia. I did my dive (repair work) in Padangbai[1][2]. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Livingseas+Coral+Restoration+Site/@-8.5275133,115.5124981,665m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x2dd141d3e8100fa1:0x24910fb14b24e690!2sBali,+Indonesia!3b1!8m2!3d-8.4095178!4d115.188916!16s%2Fg%2F121hxh1j!3m5!1s0x2dd20f0af9462d0d:0x5218323281bb0375!8m2!3d-8.5275133!4d115.5132446!16s%2Fg%2F11trlkdkmj?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDgyMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D https://www.google.com/maps/place/Livingseas+Coral+Restorati... [2] https://www.reefrestorationbali.com/ https://www.reefrestorationbali.com/
freefolks 2mo ago
Thailand doesn't have the conditions required for corals to thrive. The best, most beautiful coral come from Indonesia.
- throwaway2037 1mo ago
  The coral in Andaman Sea (west side) is as good as Indonesia. Currently, most coral restoration projects are using table coral. Both places have plenty of it.

wraptile 2mo ago

I agree though we had very mid results here in the Gulf of Thailand while the Andaman Sea side has had more luck. The issue with Gulf of Thailand is that it's just so shallow with avg depth of only 50m and too calm making new coral growth very hard with existing techniques. There's some new promising research on alternative methods of raising coral larva in labs, but I'm not up to speed with that yet and it seems quite complex.

bbondo 2mo ago
Have any areas in GoT shown recovery from blasting and/or bleaching without human intervention? I have fond memories of Koh Tao circa 2009...
- wraptile 2mo ago
  Koh Tao is definitely not doing great compared to 2009 though there is some bounce back lately. I just moved from there to Koh Chang which despite poor visibility still has a lot of absolutely stunning untouched corals though unlike Koh Tao it takes an hour-long boat ride to get out there. Koh Phangan recently made news on massive natural recovery, so there's a lot of hope in the Gulf of Thailand still!

randoomed 2mo ago

Mossy earth has been doing a (i think quite successful) restoration of an coral area damaged by bomb fishing in indonesia. Here is a 2 year recap of the program and the result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0bkMhhMHOw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0bkMhhMHOw

throwaway2037 2mo ago
Hat tip. I'm pretty sure their sites are in Nusa Penida which is a short ferry ride from Bali, Indonesia. I did my dive (repair work) in Padangbai[1][2]. [1] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Livingseas+Coral+Restoration+Site/@-8.5275133,115.5124981,665m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x2dd141d3e8100fa1:0x24910fb14b24e690!2sBali,+Indonesia!3b1!8m2!3d-8.4095178!4d115.188916!16s%2Fg%2F121hxh1j!3m5!1s0x2dd20f0af9462d0d:0x5218323281bb0375!8m2!3d-8.5275133!4d115.5132446!16s%2Fg%2F11trlkdkmj?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDgyMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D https://www.google.com/maps/place/Livingseas+Coral+Restorati... [2] https://www.reefrestorationbali.com/ https://www.reefrestorationbali.com/

freefolks 2mo ago

Thailand doesn't have the conditions required for corals to thrive. The best, most beautiful coral come from Indonesia.

throwaway2037 1mo ago
The coral in Andaman Sea (west side) is as good as Indonesia. Currently, most coral restoration projects are using table coral. Both places have plenty of it.