Last week Koh Tao was visited by Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) and Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) for the deployment of new artificial reefs. The structures themselves were donated by TAT, all of them made with a machine specialized for 3D printing in concrete. The original idea was to deploy the new structures at two different dive sites around Koh Tao, one on the west coast (Ban's House reef/ Sairee reef) and on the east coast (Aow Leuk). Unfortunately, due to weather conditions and stronger winds from the east side, both of the artificial reefs were decided to be deployed on the west side, at Junkyard instead of Aow Leuk. 

The start of the deployment was the morning of the 9th, where one of the night ferries going to Koh Tao helped out lifting the structures into the water by a large crane, which was efficient since the largest structure weighed around 700 kg. To get the structures into a fairly okay position, there were both divers and freedivers in the water to help out. Later on, a second dive team went in to rearrange the placement of the structures. 

Two days later, January 11th, people from all over Koh Tao were invited to join in for dives at one of the new dive sites (Ban's House Reef) led by Ban's manager Tim Hunt and Ban's and Assavas conservation ecologist Katarina Grepp. Two groups went down to see the new artificial reef and luckily different species had already moved in inside the structures! Plans from DMCR will be to start transplant corals onto the structures in the future. 

A massive thank you to everyone involved in this, for the fantastic structures we now have, the hard work from both TAT and DMCR, but also all the different dive shops involved in this project, and of course a very big thanks for all the photos taken by Vie Boursmui, Matee Srisawat, and Ferry Weerayut!