Coral Reefs To Be Rehabilitated In Andaman Sea

[Jai Dee]

Artificial Reefs are being placed in the Andaman sea at Bang Tao bay while the district office plan to promote the location as a new diving site.

A project to rehabilitate coral reefs and create new diving sites was launched yesterday in Phuket’s Andaman sea at Bang Tao bay. The project is run by the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, Choeng Thale Administrative Organization. Vice Governor Nirund Kalayanamitra led marine biologists to place the first square concrete into the sea as an artificial coral reef. The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources has built 300 concrete blocks with a 2 million baht budget and is placing them in Bang Tao bay as the first location before expanding to Kata-Karon bay, and Coral, Bon, Phi Phi and Racha Yai islands by March this year.

The Director of Phuket Marine Biological Center, Wannakiat Thubthimsang, expects the artificial reefs will be sources of food for marine lives creating natural food chains and lead to better undersea ecological systems.

Meanwhile the Cherng Talay administrative body administrator Samart Sake said his office will spend 600,000 baht to promote the artificial reef as a new diving site as there is also an old tin dredge capsized under the sea there for a long time and it should attract divers’ interest.

Source: Andaman News - Tuesday 24 January 2006