Thailand Aggressor

[lord khram]

We dived the Similans , Ko Lanta , Ko Phi Phi in early 2009 , again at Christmas 2009 and Christmas 2010. Each time there were fewer fish , more and more dead coral and more fishing boats than on the previous trips. There was a coral bleaching in mid 2010 that seems to have completely thrashed the reefs we saw. It was our personal opinion that lndonesia , Malaysia and the Philippines have far far better diving that Thailand. The difference between how the Malaysian government manages Sipadan and how the Similans is managed is startling.

I love Thailand , the food , the people , the jungle areas and the north ...but the dive sites need some serious protection ASAP.

Unfortunately this sort of thing is endemic in Thai society, not just diving / marine park issues. Most seem to only care about the quick profit they can make today and don't consider tomorrow until it arrives.
With more and more mass tourism being encouraged, if what you are saying is general, then the future does indeed not look good for the future of the marine environment.

 

[DivingDoc]

Silverknife -- thanks for the detailed and well organized review. BTW, if you want to see whale sharks, you should do snorkeling off of Hobox Island (off the Yucatan peninsula) in Mexico in July or August. We had one afternoon where we stopped counting at 21 whale sharks, 10 manta rays and a pod of dolphins with a baby in tow. This was all in 2.5 to 3 hours. BTW, I love manta rays -- did you see any in Thailand?

 

[Silver knife]

Hi Doc. You're welcome. Glad that you found it helpful. Thanks for the suggestion on Hobox Island. Where did you stay and with whom did you dive? No. Did not see any mantas while diving the Andaman. Did see a couple on the surface from the boat but none while diving. In fact, other than the two whale sharks, we saw nothing big. Otherwise than the trip was pretty disappointing taking into consideration the time and expense of getting there from the east coast of the U.S. Judging from what I am reading in the papers these days, looks like things are getting a little unsettled politically in Thailand right now. I don't really understand the point of putting an Aggressor in the Red Sea given the unrest in Egypt. I was planning on making that my next trip but not now, and maybe not ever.

 

[2Narced]

Just returned from a Thai liveaboard, though not the Aggressor. Did pass by it though. Agree that things aren't looking that good for the area in general. Glad you got to see whale sharks, Silver knife! We saw not a single shark in 17 dives, including the less-than-accurately-named Shark Point.

 

[stevenl]

Go Eco Phuket released many bamboo sharks last Sunday at Koh Mai Ton and Koh Doc Mai. We participated of course, and our divers loved the experience, and the sharks seemed to enjoy their new found freedom as well. We're trying.

At the same time also harlequin shrimp were released by the way.

 

[lord khram]

Go Eco Phuket released many bamboo sharks last Sunday at Koh Mai Ton and Koh Doc Mai. We participated of course, and our divers loved the experience, and the sharks seemed to enjoy their new found freedom as well. We're trying.

At the same time also harlequin shrimp were released by the way.

Great to see projects like this, everything can help. Lets hope these sharks survive.

 

[2Narced]

That's great to hear Steven! Programs like that can make a huge difference -- thanks for being involved.

 

[Silver knife]

Glad that efforts are being made to rehabilitate the area. Saw lots of harlequin shrimp but like 2Narced, saw not a single shark other than the 2 whale sharks during the two weeks of diving. Actually, that's not entirely accurate, the way the Aggressor does their trips, you board on Sunday late afternoon, (no diving), and disembark on the following Saturday morning,(no diving), then reboard on Sunday (no diving) to again disembark the following Saturday, so the "two weeks" are really ten days of diving. They tell you that in advance, so it comes as no surprise, but the 4,000 + passenger cruise ships reprovision and refit in two days so you would think that with a max of 16 divers, it would not be that hard to accomplish the task in one day.

 

[Zippsy]

I'm not sure how cruise ships handle rest days but I can assure you that in that 24-28 hours that dive boat crews have "off", they have a lot of personal and work related tasks to do. You don't have to feel sorry for them but don't put them in chains and reintroduce flogging either.

 

[cheechwizard]

Having worked on an Aggressor boat ten years ago,I would have to agree with Zippsy. And please remember how many weeks in a row they are out with a new group of divers with Many levels of skills and expectations.Some are even Amphibious Sea Rectums that somehow got on board.

Our boat was steam cleaned topside to dive deck and many details were fixed/changed or swapped out,Nothing was overlooked if possible.
We worked hard.
.
.