A beautiful day greeted the Eco Koh Tao team for their final day of the latest Ecodiver extravaganza as they took their slates and reels and headed for AoLeuk Bay in Koh Tao’s South-East.

Working with Marine conservation Koh Tao (MCKT), Eco Koh Tao (EKT) regularly surveys a number of bays around Koh Tao. The team from MCKT focuses mostly on the south & east sides of the island while EKT focuses mostly on the north & west. In this way we get good overall coverage of our entire reef systems.

During the course students undertake detailed classroom lectures on organism ID and its role in the ecosystem before diving on local reefs to get first hand experience of some of the things discussed in class.

IDCS & Reef Check Instructor Nathan Cook said “It is good for us to get to the East coast sometimes as the indicator species and reefs vary quite markedly from what we usually survey. Working with MCKT also helps us share what can sometimes be quite a heavy workload.”

People often ask whether the reef is good or bad based on our data but long term monitoring is designed to indicate changes over time so causes can be identified and solutions developed when problems do arise.

The afternoon of the 3rd saw us also complete the course and certification procedures for three new Reef Ecodivers: Pierre Ingmarsson from Sweden, Julie Jamieson of Scotland and one more of Crystal Dive’s instructional team Richard Todd joined our ranks. Well done guys!

Our Reef Check surveys are also conducted in conjunction with the Save Koh Tao Groups Ecological Monitoring Program collecting data for our local conservation efforts as well.

Reef Check International www.reefcheck.org

Marine Conservation Koh Tao www.marineconservationkohtao.com

Save Koh Tao www.savekohtao.com

Crystal Dive www.crystaldive.com