Buoyancy World is an artificial reef built hear one of local dive sites to reduce the pressure off the natural reef area so divers can practice their buoyancy and control before being ‘released’ onto the natural reef environment. It has proved a success since it was first deployed in 2010. This year we undertook and expansion of Buoyancy World with new structures to expand the site and make it more interesting.

This week tireless work from volunteers from Crystal Dive Resort & Eco Koh Tao in conjunction with Marine Conservation Koh Tao have led to the deployment of the structures built a couple of months ago. After construction we used the night boat to transport the structures to Twins where they were lowered to the sea floor. The next day we arranged our structure, a shipwreck, with all the component parts in place ready to receive coral transplants.

On the following day, October 16 a group of 12 headed to Twins to start to transplant the corals from our coral nursery on our Adopt-a-Reef site onto the ship. The aim is to turn our artificial steel structure into a biotic structure full of life and interest as people practice the necessary skills to be good divers.

We still have a bit of work to do to complete the transfer of corals, after which time we will start a new batch of transplants for the coral nursery. Lots of work but it has been rewarding to see a dream come true on this ever growing work in progress.