Phuket, Andaman Region Face More Dive Site Closures

Pathomporn Kaenkrachang PhuketWan 16 Feb 11;

MORE diving spots in the Phuket and Andaman region may have to be closed to save the region's diving industry, the Permanent Secretary of the National Resources and Environment Department, Chote Rachoo, said on Phuket yesterday.

He was speaking at a seminar that included the Minister for National Resources and the Environment, Suwit Khunkitti and about 30 dive company operators, tour boat firms and others with an interest in the region's coral reefs.

"We should close more diving spots or areas suffering from coral reef bleaching," Khun Chote told the meeting at the Metropole Hotel in Phuket City. He said laws may have to change to ensure that the region's reefs were saved for future generations.

If the coral was disturbed by too much activity, recovery would be slowed or not come at all, he said.

People in large numbers, boats, loss of fule and bad water all had an effect on already-damaged reefs, he said.

"If we close all the diving spots where bleaching has occurred, the diving industry will be seriously affected," he warned.

Marine biologists say more than 90 percent of reefs the region have been damaged by the bleaching, a natural phenomenon that struck in April and May last year when monsoonal cloud cover failed to arrive and the coral reefs overheated.

It was essential for dive operators, tour companies, national park rangers and marine biologists to work together to introduce a strategy for the survival of the reefs and the diving industry, Khun Chote said.

His comments echoed views expressed last week at a larger seminar in Khao Lak.

The areas that have suffered bleaching were being checked now, and more closures would come if that was what the experts considered needed to happen. Eighteen diving sites in seven Thai marine parks, six of them off the Andaman coast, were closed in January in a sudden move to protect the reefs from further damage from divers and snorkellers.

The Khao Lak meetin g heard that snorkelling groups, where guides often did not advise tourists about how to avoid damaging the reefs, were compounding harm caused by coral bleaching.

National parks are likely to structure quota systems and timed entry periods in a drastic move that will bring controls to the diving industry for the first time.

However, rangers have no control over coral areas outside the national parks, which may face higher traffic as soon as the new system comes into force.