Thailand: Official leaps into talks over anchors in Phuket coral

Naraporn Tuarob, Phuket News, 8 Oct 13;



PHUKET: Thanate Munnoy, Director of Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, has called a meeting for Thursday (October 10) to discuss the problem of insufficient moorings at Koh Racha Yai.

Mr Thanate was reacting to video footage posted on YouTube by “Save Phuket”, showing anchors from four tourist speedboats dropped in among the coral surrounding the island, and identifying the speedboats attached to them.

He told The Phuket News, “Yes, I’ve already seen the clips.” He said that no immediate action would be taken against the offenders. “The first thing we can do is to warn them and discover why it happened.

“Was it because of a lack of moorings, or a lack of understanding or caring?

“On Thursday we plan to hold a meeting to bring together tour operators, officials, and related bodies to discuss just what is happening and to work out how we can solve the problem.”

The meeting will be held at Rawai Municipality offices, at a time to be confirmed.