Similan conditions now

[aquamarin]

Gandytron, it's an interesting question you raise.

2007 a couple of us sat down and formed a forum, officially approved under the Phang Nga Tourist Association, for boat operators in the Khao Lak area. We encouraged everyone to participate and discussed issues such as clean-ups dives, beach clean-ups, mooring checks, placing of moorings at Boonsung Wreck, environmental considerations (rubbish disposal, feeding of fish), observing park rules (no touching, no harassing etc), limiting number of boats/divers at dive sites etc.

It was all great and we all agreed. The problem was that a couple of the biggest operators in the Similans did not want to participate and did not agree to following these guidelines that we basically set up for ourselves.

We tried to revive the forum a couple of times, but the result was the same. And so, many (most) of us continue trying to minimize our impact while others don't give a toffee as long as they make money today :depressed:

Karin

 

[Bowmouth]

....I wonder if the Similan Islands National Park should be closed to divers for a while to encourage full and rapid recovery. From what I was told about corruption amongst the Park officials, it seems that this is unlikley to happen, but it would be interesting to hear what measures (if any) dive operators have agreed amongst themselves to minimise pressure on especially vulnerable areas.

Hmmmm...

Many parts (and dive sites) of the Similan Islands have been closed for divers already for many years. First, when those areas were closed, it was said that it would only be for a few years and for re-generation purposes. After 10 years or so those sites and areas are still closed and nobody seems to really know anymore why and neither can anyone say for sure if and when those sites and areas will be opened again.

I'm quite confident that the Similan Park officials do not decide if and when the park must be opened or closed to divers. Those decisions come from higher up in Bangkok.
I'm also not sure what the alleged "corruption angle" has to do with that.

Dive operators can really do nothing much about the coral bleaching damage in the park. Lots of hard coral is dead and it will need time to re-grow. Re-planting hard coral can be done (has been done by the park in the past) but tour and dive operators cannot just do their own projects. It's a National Park and there are many rules to adhere to.

Divers diving on a (partly) dead hard coral reef is not bad for the reef. It's bad for divers. Banning divers to enter the Similan Islands is in my opinion not going to help anyone; not the divers, not the dive operators, not the National Park, and certainly not the (dead) hard coral reef.

 

[AleG]

This instant I'm bobbing over the Anita's Reef dive site in the Similans. Conditions are overcast, a bit windy and a small swell.
The water felt a bit chilly on the morning dive, but I forgot to check the temperature recorded on the dive computer. I'd guess it's about 27 degrees Celsius at most.
Visibility was quite good considering the lack of direct sunlight.
I'm off to West of Eden in an hour.

 

[AleG]

Just finished the last dive for today, a night dive.
Water temperature throughout the day has been 26 to 27 degrees, visibility (keep in mind I'm terrible at estimating visibility) has been at least 20 to 25 meters, not bad at all considering there was only a little sunshine on the second dive of the day.
The corals are a sorry sight, most hard corals are goners, covered in algae and slime. Specially staghorn and similar. Still there's plenty of vibrant life down there.

Right now on the deck of the boat waiting for the New Year the temperature is 24 degrees celsius, I can only barely see a single star so I guess it's still completely overcast and the wind is quite mild.

After midnight the boat is going to head to Koh Bon and Koh Tachai, I hope the sky clears up by then, I have good memories of the staghorn reef in Koh Tachai, glowing under the filtered sunrays from above.

 

[AleG]

Last night we arrived from the Similans, spent the night at the boat and now we are rambling around Phuket waiting for the flight back to Bangkok.
I'm glad to report that after a grey first day we had wonderful weather the other three of the live aboard. After the Similians on the first day we headed to Koh Bon, on the first dive there I had a glimpse of a manta ray (first one for me), on the second dive at the same site we had three or four mantas showing up regularly, with a little foresight it was easy to position oneself on their path and they'd pass by at arms length, simply amazing. On the third dive we held onto the rocks against the current at the west point of Koh Bon, waiting to see more mantas, but they only showed up by the end of the dive, two swimming together that I could just see from the safety stop at five meters.

By night on the second day we traveled to Koh Tachai and did a night dive there. I saw the largest Barracuda ever, swimming along another diver that was so busy fiddling with her camera that she didn't notice it!

On the third day we went to the Richelieu rock, it was a bit cloudy for the first dive but since the visibility there is superb it mattered little. As usual Richelieu Rock puts the emphasis on "Rich", just bursting with marine life, although not much on the larger side of the scale. I found an Ornated Ghost Pipefish and some sea horses at the base of the pinnacle. The second dive at Richelieu had more sunlight that made the soft corals near the top even prettier, but otherwise was quite similar to the first. After that we headed back to Koh Tachai, we went to the Tachai Pinnacle the current was very strong; we had to hold on for dear life all the way from the mooring line buoy to the bottom, were it was much milder but still present. On the way back again we hit the strong current at around 15 to 16 meters depth, I had to hold my girlfriends hand and kick like like a madman to get both of us to the mooring line. Last time I dived at that place there was also a mad current, so I'd guess it's normal. On the occasion, after going down to 37 meters and having to again tow my GF around I finally came up with half a bar in my tank. :shocked2:
We did another night dive at Koh Tachai, just around the area were the boat was anchored, around 400 meters from the beach; not much to see but a nice, long (70 minutes) dive nonetheless, the kind were you just enjoy strolling around underwater.

For the fourth day we went back to the Similans, we had a stunning weather and the dives were great. We stopped at the island No 8 and went up the Sail Rock. We dived Breakfast Bend, (I think) North Point and Shark Fin Reef; all great in spite of most if not all staghorn coral being stone dead. As far as diving conditions are concerned, it was perfect.

I'll see if during the next week or so I can go through the 700 or so photos and videos I took and start posting them in a thread.

 

[ScubaDubaDu]

Just returned from a trip to The Similan and Surin Islands. The last time we dived this area was in January 2009, pretty much 2 years ago. What we found was sad and shocking.

The Surins with its granite boulders and few corals showed only little damage. Richelieu Rock was as spectacular as ever.

Similans had some coral damage, especially in the shallow parts, but in general the diving was still good, and the visibility averaging 30m.

At Koh Tachai and Koh Bon we were shocked by the sight of dead hard and soft coral. I have to say it looked like a coral graveyard. These sites were so glorious in the past. The shallow staghorn coral garden around the ridge of Koh Boh used to be so vibrant of colors and marine life. Now over 90% of the coral was dead! Only a few brain coral heads seemed to have survived, although they also showed large patches of bleaching and dead spots.

The dive operator was very hesitant to speak about the damage at Koh Bon and Koh Tachai… obviously a very sore spot for them. Eventually we were told that the warming trend of the water in early 2010 created this. Well if this is a sign of global warming, then, it’s a calamity. The dive operator was very optimistic and called this a natural cycle, and that in about a year everything should be back to normal. I am no expert, but in my view it will require a miracle for the coral to recover that fast. I guess 5-10 years would be more realistic.

We also found quite a bit of abandoned fishing nets, cages, and ropes, plus other abandoned objects that local fisherman lost or cut loose. Quasi-anchors made out of rocks wrapped inside nets descend and crash into the reefs and wreck havoc when they try to uplift them and we could see when some were just cut free as they were too strongly lodged into the coral.

Wonder what the 2000THB park fee is used for? We didn’t see much preservation, and compared to before there were a lot more signs of fishing activities near the reefs.

We have been at the Similans 4 times in the past 5 years, now we will take a break for the next years to come, giving the corals some time to recover and the Thai government a chance to put the park fee revenues to good use.

 

[k374]

so, from what I am gathering from these posts it's not quite worth to dive the Similans at this time? I was planning to do a 4 night liveaboard in a couple weeks but may cancel now if the diving isn't that great... perhaps do it some other time when the corals have recovered.

 

[Quero]

Here are some perspectives from the other thread:

... the bleaching in some places is quite bad, and guess what, the smart tour leaders on dive boats are skipping those bits like they skipped the bits that had suffered damage in the tsunami. And Koh Tachai/Richelieu Rock/Elephant Head, sites like this - looking great. I have had just as many happy people coming back from trips as last season. Lots of manta rays have helped with that!

I have observed some sever bleaching but as mentioned mostly in the shallower sites. Most areas appeared unaffected or sustained minimal damage.

Well, yes there is bleaching. I was on our boat 5 days in December and of course I saw a difference in the shallow areas. Apart from the bleaching, I also noticed more fish than previous years - they love the algae.

We've seen lots of mantas this season. Yes, our tourleader has changed the schedule accordingly, and we now skip some of the popular dive sites, but there are plenty of great sites out there. Our guests have ALL loved the diving. We have several bookings for March and April for guests who came with us November and December. They loved it and they're coming back for more.

Also, coral bleaching is not a new phenomenon - it's happened before and it will happen again. After the El Nino bleaching there was a lot of panic, but the corals took much less time to recover than feared. It's sad to see the bleaching, but people who have never dived/snorkeled the Similans find it amazing out there - and guests who've been with us before have not quite understood "all the fuss" (that's a quote from someone who's been on our boat 4 times in 1,5 years)

Karin

 

[Zippsy]

The mantas don't seem to mind. Thank God they haven't cancelled.

 

[AleG]

so, from what I am gathering from these posts it's not quite worth to dive the Similans at this time? I was planning to do a 4 night liveaboard in a couple weeks but may cancel now if the diving isn't that great... perhaps do it some other time when the corals have recovered.

Oh no, it's certainly worth diving, specially if you go to Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock. The corals are in a sorry state, but there's still plenty of good stuff under the Andaman Sea.

I just uploaded a metric crapload of photos from the New Year trip to the Similans to my Picasa Albums. You can take a look and see if it's worth seen that in person or not.