Phuket Corals and consciences now cleaner

THE sandy seafloor suddenly gave way to the wall  of wrecked coral skirting Coral Island. The forest of dead branching corals, which should have been a Mecca of sea life, was a ghost town. The site was haunting, but  further along the reef, the barren coral landscape gave way to signs of life as a volunteer-dive team carefully picked fishing net from a coral’s branches.

Sights like this are becoming more common in Thailand’s waters. In fact, the coral reefs of Thailand and the rest of the India and Pacific Ocean area are declining at a rate of nearly 1,553 square kilometers a year, twice the rate that the rainforest is disappearing.

On October 29^th the Thailand Diving Association (TDA) dug in to make a difference at Coral Island with their annual coral reef cleanup dive, which is part of “Save the Nature @ Phuket”, a marine awareness program tun by Tourism Authority of Thailand, Phuket Marine Biological Center and the TDA.

The TDA and its volunteers collected rubbish around Coral Island and did their best to raise awareness of the ecological and economical importance of the coral reefs around Phuket.

Ninety volunteer divers, aware of the importance of coral reefs boarded two different boats on Saturday, one provided by All4Diving company and the other from Dive Master Co Ltd.

Though only 95.22 kilograms of rubbish was collected during the cleanup dive, the TDA saw this as a positive sign for the area.

For TDA representative Varaporn Jittamonta the relatively small amount of the trash collected during the dive wasn’t a story of failure, but a story of promise.

“It was a very successful day. There wasn’t a lot of garbage collected, but that’s because local people have become more aware of the importance of conserving our natural marine areas,” she said.

“This year was different, be cause there were more Thai divers helping out; last year it was all foreigners,” she added.

Mrs Varaporn believes that the improvement is a result of educational programs, such as “Save the Nature @ Phuket,” which focus on creating an awareness of the importance of nature conservation, with the hope of eventually restoring the marine systems around Phuket to a healthy state.

“Tourism in Phuket is about our natural resources. If we destroy them, we destroy our cource of income,” she said.

Calude de Crissey, owner of All4Diving, was glad to be a part of the coral reef cleanup again. Claude is also planning to participate in the Patong Beach cleanup organized by the TDA and Patong Municipality, scheduled for December 16.

Tour Director of All4Diving, David McGuire, was also pleased with the outcome of the event.

“We want out and cleaned up some rubbish. We did some good and that’s what matters,” he said.

“the thing is.it [the cleanup project] is like being faced by a raging inferno and all you have is a bucket of water to throw on it doesn’t do much, but it’s better than doing nothing,” he said.

Local beaches slated for surfing resderve shortlist

AT  LEAST three surfing locations at Phuket beaches are being shortlisted for recognition as National Surfing Reserves (NSRs).

Brad Farmer, global chair of the non-profit organization National Surfing Reserves (NSR), conducted a site insoection at Kata, Kalim and Nai Yang Beaches on November 4.

“The surfing reserve concept is a symbolic dedication whereby surfing areas are recognised as coastal resources worthy of conservation; a reserve is essentially a badge of merit, a proactive endorsement to recognise iconic natural locations around the world,” said Mr Farmer.

In Australia, Mr Farmer’s home country, the NSR project has gained much high-level support, including that of state premiers.

“Beaches are Thailand’s great income generators, so it makes sense to recognise the special attributes off the coastal resources, such as surfing areas,” he noted.

There are currently 14 NSRs in Australia, two in Hawaii and several more under review in the region, including in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and China.

“The creation of surfing reserve in Thailand, the first in Asia, is a golden opportunity for Thailand to show its forward thinking and proactive effort toward conservation on the Andaman Coast,” said Steven Martin, a coastal researcher with Prince of Songkla University’s Faculty of Environmental Management.

“Thailand is being considered for this distinction not only because of the existence of the natural resource, but because it is a safe and accessible destination with a favourable climate of environmental awareness, especially with tourism,” he explained.

Mr Martin added that surfing in Thailand is gaining in popularity and surfers are inevitably custodians of the coastal environment.

“The surfing reserve program globally promotes stewardship of the natural environment,including the reefs and aquatic life,” he said.

If anything good came out of the 2004 tsunami, it was the rise in awareness of coastal resources and the support from the Thai government alongside international organisations and NGOs

“It’s really an Honor that Brad has taken the initiative to visit Phuket and consider surf sites, such as Kata, Kalim and Nai Yang Beaches, for this internationally recognised distinction,” he added.

SSI brings dive training online in Phuket

SCUBA Schools International (SSI) is the second largest school based diving certification agency in the world, and it’s growing at the rapid rate. It’s one of only two diving agencies that holds a global divers for over 40 years, and it’s the only diving agency that offers free online training. Operating in over 130 countries and with more than 2,400 SSI Dive Centers, SSI training materials are available in over 25 languages, including Thai.

Their commitment to service is more important to them than brand marketing. SSI have, as a result, seen an annual growth of over 35 per cent year-on-year across the region, and, since opening an Area Office in Thailand in 2002, they now employ 25 staff in five full service centres (two in Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines,Indonesia), and also have certification card printing facilities in 18 locations across eight counties with at least six more planned before the end of the year.

SSI Thailand has grown to 11 full-time staff, plus four experienced Dive Medical Technicians who emphasize and ensure diver safety. In fact, they regularly visit dive operations under the SSI umbrella and conduct assessment in all areas to ensure that safety standards are maintained.

High quality operators are critical to their success – they already work closely with 20 dive operators in Southern Thailand who have all had to comply rigorously with SSI standards in order to be part of the SSI network.

Sea Bees Diving, in Chalong, was the first dive operator in Thailand to be awarded the prestigious SSI Diamond Instructor Training Centre. With over 20 years experience in recreational diving, through day trips and liveaboard safaris, it’s also a training center for those who wish to become professional instructors. They have dive centers in Phuket, Khao Lak, Pak Meng and Phi Phi.

Gary Hawkes, SSI International Training Director, states: “Sea Bees Diving reflects the quality of diving operations that SSI likes to partner with. They ensure SSI divers new and old are diven the very best in service and standards available in the diving industry.”

“For Sea Bees Diving, SSI allows us to link our philosophy of diving together with an agency that has an established and reliable worldwide network and is a relationship that benefits all – whether they’re customers or dive professionals” says Holger Schwab, Managing Director of Sea Bees Diving.

Their free online training at www.diveSSI.com is part of the social networking features of SSI’s global website and online diver network which has over half a million regular users.

Earlier this year they advertised their free online training to gap year students across Europe using the slogan “Start online today...do your dives in Paradise”. Several thousand signed up, a few thousand of whom have already completed their courses in the region and they ecpect SSI dive centres in Phuket and across the west coast to benefit from this new influx during the coming high season.

But it’s not always about diving – supporting and funding locally based ecological projects directly is an equally important part of their operations. Assising with illegal wildlife trading, beach and dive site cleanups on Koh Phi Phi, artificial dive sites in Koh Tao and environmental projects involving local schools throughout Thailand are just sone of the project SSI are actively involved with.

Central Phuket Festival to expand food zone

CENTRAL  Festival Phuket will open a number of new food and beverage outlets in its Dining and Bar Circle Zone in December, its management has announced.

Central Festival Phuket General Manager Wilaiporn Pitimanaaree told that serval new outlets would join the successful Wine Connection restaurant in mid-December as part of a relaunch for the zone, which is on the ground floor facing Wichit Sonkhram Road.

Among the confirmed new outlets will be the 300-squaremeter Urban Food, serving Asian and international cuisine. Run by an expatriate Frenchman living in Phuket, the Central Festival branch will be Urban Food’s second, following on the success of their flagsip branch at Jungceylon in Patong.

Also confirmed is Spice, serving Thai and Russian cuisine, a Chinese restaurant and a Japanese shabu-shabu restaurant.

To kick off the relaunch in style, a jazz festival is planned.

Phuket Bar owners hit by beer crisis

Phuket Bar and other businesses in Patong’s entertainment industry, as well as the thousands of other establishments islandwide, are reeling from the effect of product shortages brought on by the floods in Bangkok and Central Thailand.

Among the greatest concerns for the bars is the shortage of alcoholic beverages, which Patong Entertainment Business Association (PEBA) says will reach “crisis” level within 30 days if steps are not taken to bring booze back to Phuket’s party town.

“At the beginning of the flood crisis, we didn’t expect it to affect us much,” said PEBA President Weerawit Kurasombat, whose members generate more than 100 million baht annually for the local economy.

“But now we are starting to feel the effects – we are running short of alcoholic beverages,” he said.

Mr Weerawit said that even small bars in Patong make 6,000 to 7,000 baht a night from alcohol sales.

“The main income generator for each bar is beer sales. Bif bars can usually make about 30,000 baht a night from selling beer alone,” he said.

Alcohol sales comprise a critical portion of income for entertainment businesses, he said.

“Overall, between 20% to 30% of the overall income generated by entertainment businesses is from  alcohol beverage sales alone.“

“Of that income, 60% is from beer sales, 30% is from sales of whiskey and wine, and the remaining 10% is from cocktails,” he added.

“This is the beginning of the high season. If the supply situation does not improve within about 30 days, I believe the entertainment business will start showing the real signs of crisis,” Mr Weerawit waened.