03/02/2008
Scoping for an Artificial Reef Site...
On a sunny Sunday afternoon MSDT Nathan Cook along with Divemaster trainees Darryl Davies and Alicia took to the waters of Mae Haad and Sai Thong in what was our first foray into site selection for our artificial reef. What we were looking for is a flat, sandy bottom with a little coral around to provide some thing to look at, but not so much available to be damaged by inexperienced divers.
What we found was a fantastic location very close to the resort where quite a well developed but small reef system, that drops from 10 to 16 metres right next to extensive sand flats & a featureless bottom. It seems ideal and we were very excited by what we found.
Our second exploratory dive was a Sai Thong, just around the corner from Mae Haad. Many years ago a tuk-tuk was sunk as the start of an artificial reef and we wanted to see if we could possibly use that ‘start’ and build on it.
But with this first exploration we have made a start and the prospects for Koh Tao’s artificial reef is very exciting.