Coral reef discovered off coast of Thailand

[buksida]

A coral reef spanning several hundred acres and teeming with fish has been discovered off the coast of Thailand and should be given protected status, the World Wide Fund for Nature said Wednesday.

Tipped off by local fishermen, WWF divers in January found what they say is a healthy, 667-acre reef in southern Thailand with over 30 genera of hard corals, and at least 112 species of fish.

Among the fish species identified, the WWF said, was a type of parrot fish first discovered in Sri Lanka and never before seen in Thailand, and a species of the sweet lips fish previously only found in the Similan Islands.

The reef is off the coast of Khao Lak, a popular tourist destination on the Andaman Sea coast of Thailand.

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[MoonWrasse]

Quick, let me grab my TNT!











Just kidding

 

[Batfish]

Wow!

More info:

www.wwfthai.org/eng/news/wwfthai_news/2006/Feb/new_coralreef_n_rarefish.asp

www.wwfthai.org/eng/news/greencoast/had_thai_muang_coral.htm

Right, where's my reg...........

 

[Vie]

I hope that some way is found to protect this site...

 

[buksida]

Those images look awesome, as Vie said, I hope it gets protected.

Would love to get any more info if anyone can find any.

 

[escapedia]

Thanks! Great news

 

[silent running]

Well I do hope the World Wrestling Federation will try a more low impact style of wrestling to protect the fragile hard coral. They've certainly destroyed all hard coral in Tennesse with all that body slamming and knee dropping...

But seriously, it's interesting to note that the reef was known to fishermen and they apparently tipped of the conservationists. The articles say that the fish populations are very healthy, but don't mention anything about how intact the food chain is-if there are any bigger fish. I wonder... Anybody been there yet? -Andy

 

[MoonWrasse]

Didn't see it when I flew over the area this morning.
It was in yesterday's Bangkok Post, with pix. Looks like hard coral.

 

[nuswhl]

A new dive site?! Great news! Please protect it. And Next time I'll ditch phuket completely and stay in a Khao Lak hotel.

 

[Batfish]

It's not a "dive site" yet. There has been no news on whether diving will be allowed there.