Maya Bay 'well on the road to recovery'

[webfact]

Maya Bay 'well on the road to recovery'

By The Nation

 

Months after being closed to tourists, the world-famous Maya Bay is showing encouraging signs of recovery. /Credit:Thon Thamrongnawasawat

 

Coral reefs and ecosystems at the world-famous Maya Bay in the Andaman sea have been almost fully revived, but a date for its reopening to tourists has not been set.

 

“After being closed for many months to facilitate natural restoration, the beach's green forests have started to recover and coral reefs in the bay area have also been showing recovery and these are encouraging signs,” Thon Thamrongnawasawat, well-known Thai marine biologist, wrote on his Facebook page on September 25.

 

Credit:Thon Thamrongnawasawat and the Marine National Park Operation Centre

 

He also showed several photos provided by the marine national park operation centre, featuring lively coral reefs, crystal blue water and a shark swimming in its waters.

 

He praised the collaborative efforts for natural rehabilitation by many parties including nature conservation officials, staff of Kasetsart University, representatives from the private sector and volunteers.

 

 

There is still the problem of floating garbage spoiling coral reefs but the good news is that officials and volunteers are constantly collecting those garbages, he said.

 

As part of the two-year natural restoration plan, officials currently are working on the tourists' walk trail to ensure tourists do not damage trees. They are also arranging a new boat pier, ticket booking, tourist quota and other things, he said.

 

He expected the famous beach could be reopened for tourists uninterrupted. After that it should not be opened and closed from time to time as in the past, he said.

 

The bay has been closed since June 2018 after overcrowding by tourists damaged the bay environment. The authorities announced in May this year that it would be closed for two years to allow natural rehabilitation.

 

 

Thon said the latest developments pointed to growth of diversified coral reefs, blacktip reef sharks swimming freely and beach forests turning green.

“This is the mission for the future to ensure that later generations would not condemn us (for destroying nature),” he wrote.

 

He did not speculate when the bay will reopen for tourists, but hinted that it would not be far away, saying that “new hope is approaching”.

 

Many who commented on his post were excited about the updates but some suggested that the bay remain closed for a more fewer years.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30376879

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2019-09-30

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[ChipButty]

Keep it closed it's only just over 1 ago they closed it, 

[legend49]

add to the end of the media header;  ....................recovery"  in ten years time if kept closed.

[RichardColeman]

I think we can all safely assume it will open as a VIP beach first

[fruitman]

17 minutes ago, ChipButty said:

Keep it closed it's only just over 1 ago they closed it, 

And they used superglue to glue to coral to the reef, farang had to do it. 

 

They better wait untill the coral really connects to the rocks before letting the herds of chinese  step on it.

[hotchilli]

Keep it closed, Thais want it re-opened as soon as possible just for the profit... 

They've proved already that in their hands they couldn't manage a sustainable tourism level

they exploited it to the point of destruction.

Lessons are never learnt where money is concerned it clouds too many peoples vision !

[khunPer]

Hope they will keep that area closed long enough for nature to get a really healthy condition again, and after that only open it to a limited number of guests, which should pay a high enough entrance fee to keep the beach and bay in excellent condition; could for example be with strictly licensed tour boats.

[MaxLee]

9 hours ago, webfact said:

Maya Bay 'well on the road to recovery'

The brown envelopes are on the way. The Maya Bay gang wants to see its revenue restored ASAP

[mok199]

Enviornmental sustainabilIty thai style $$$$$$$$$$$$$...Sad

[marko kok prong]

Seems awfully fast,i smell bs here.

[CGW]

5 hours ago, hotchilli said:

They've proved already that in their hands they couldn't manage a sustainable tourism level

they exploited it to the point of destruction.

Well done - you have explained Thai philosophy to tourism in a "nutshell" ????

[worgeordie]

On 9/30/2019 at 3:31 AM, webfact said:

Coral reefs and ecosystems at the world-famous Maya Bay in the Andaman sea have been almost fully revived, but a date for its reopening to tourists has not been set.

Almost fully revived.....Impossible, they take a few pictures of glued on

Coral frags,and picture of shark, but as tourism is so strong,or should

i say tourist $, so open it up again,and just keep glueing bits of Coral

on the rocks.

regards Worgeordie

[poohy]

Im Not a biologist but i dont think coral reef revive in only a year or so