Far Islands ban may sink Pattaya’s last scuba diving shops

[Rimmer]

Far Islands ban may sink Pattaya’s last scuba diving shops

PATTAYA:--The Royal Thai Navy has dealt a body blow to Pattaya’s scuba diving industry, closing off the area’s best dive sites to protect coral reefs.

 

About 20 owners for Thai- and foreign-owned dive shops met March 23 at the Ocean Marina Yacht Club to discuss the ban on diving at Pattaya’s “Far Islands” and two dozen other small sites around Pattaya and Sattahip bays.

 

The dive operators worked out the text of a letter they planned to submit to the Tourist Authority of Thailand, explaining that the navy’s action could deal a fatal blow to many of their businesses and drive thousands of tourists away from the city.

 

“Around Pattaya we have forty beautiful islands but, unfortunately, a lot of them are restricted by the Royal Thai Navy,” said yacht club Harbormaster Scott Finsten. “We can get high-quality luxury tourists to come to Pattaya, but we need access to these islands or many businesses will be drastically affected.”

 

Scuba diving in Pattaya is centered around three areas: the Near Islands of Koh Larn, Koh Sak and Koh Krok; the Far Islands of Koh Rin, Koh Man Wichai and Koh Phai; and Sattahip Bay off Samae San.

 

The Far Islands, which also include smaller isles that are infrequently used, offer by far the best diving in Pattaya. Located a 90-minute ride from Pattaya, the islands themselves are uninhabited and their waters are not used for non-diving watersports or sea-walking. The waters are clearer with visibility up to 20 meters on good days.

 

The navy, in fact, intentionally sunk the HTMS Khram landing ship off Koh Phai in 26 meters of water just for divers.

 

Read more: http://www.pattayamail.com/news/far-islands-ban-may-sink-pattayas-last-scuba-diving-shops-169029

 

-- © Copyright Pattaya Mail 2017-03-31

[phantomfiddler]

As long as they don,t ban all forms of diving :)

[fforest1]

Why not scuba dive right off Pattaya beach?

[johng]

As long as they don,t ban all forms of diving :)

Like c oral or muffler.

[morrobay]

What about Ko Khram ?

https://www.google.co.th/search?q=photos+of+koh+khram+island+off+sattahip&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiVnoebrYDTAhUBRY8KHYXxCHgQsAQIHA&biw=1920&bih=974&dpr=1

Edited March 31, 2017 by morrobay

[Philthyphil]

5 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

Why not scuba dive right off Pattaya beach?

I am not sure. Maybe the plastic bags? Maybe the turds? 

Perhaps the visabilty of barely a foot caused by the raw sewerage pouring in from numerous points might be the problem. 

[johng]

Today the (presumably) Navy where firing their heavy artillery,could be clearly heard in Na-Jomtien.
Maybe they need extra space around those islands for target practice.

[onemorechang]

8 minutes ago, Philthyphil said:

I am not sure. Maybe the plastic bags? Maybe the turds? 

Perhaps the visabilty of barely a foot caused by the raw sewerage pouring in from numerous points might be the problem. 

Yes,   that would the reason why.

[LennyW]

Maybe the military dont want anybody looking too close at their Chinese junks submarines!!

[lonewolf99]

Yip another nail in the coffin/bullet in the foot for the much touted family friendly "beach resort" Pattaya.......soon to be renamed Pyongyang II

 

[sanukjim]

36 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

Why not scuba dive right off Pattaya beach?

I got my first of several qualifications off of Pattaya over 43 years ago ( The beach was a bit cleaner then).I guess that my instructor Bill done well as I am still alive having been diving in many places in the world.

[joecoolfrog]

Why would a ' high quality luxury tourist ' choose to dive in the gulf rather than the Andaman ?

[champa]

Warning sign at koh rin. Far island is navy area for field training exercise and live-fire exercise. 

 

[Ulic]

So, let me get this straight.........They have successfully (as I understand it) shut down the

on premises short time rooms of bars that offer that service all because of a couple of articles

in some British tabloids. Now it sounds as if they are doing their best to shut down the

dive service/shops in Pattaya. Is that not precisely the type of "other" tourist Thailand is trying to

attract. If Thailand wants to raise their tourist image/profile what they should start with is

cleaning up the garbage, stop the littering and treat the sewage being dumped into the sea.

Road safety, corruption, etc can follow in due course. Do the easy things first. Just my opinion.

[champers]

The military takes precedence over everything just now. 

[Basil B]

Many years ago I recall a dive trip to Koh Rin,  it was so long ago we were using the old pier, captains son was at the helm and made a pigs ear of casting off and turning the boat, and was stopped by a police boat before reaching the end of the pier, police came on board to have words.

 

When we reached Koh Rin the was a Navel Patrol boat out there,  there was another dive centres boat out there too, the patrol boat always positioned so they could watch both boats, every time a dive boat moved the patrol boat would move too,  after the last dive we set out to return to Pattaya, within 15 minutes the RTN were shelling the hell out of the island.

 

Thing is the better dive sites are out at the far islands, the biggest problem with the Near Islands, Koh Larn and it's two little sister Islands is the muppets on jet-skis who are a danger to divers, seems the military want to kill off Pattaya, full stop.

 

Pattaya is worse than Singapore, can not do this, do not do that, can not even play cards with a few friends without starting a international incident... 

 

 

Pattaya... R.I.P.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2017 by Basil B

[mikebell]

16 hours ago, lonewolf99 said:

Yip another nail in the coffin/bullet in the foot for the much touted family friendly "beach resort" Pattaya.......soon to be renamed Pyongyang II

 

Correction - 'Pong-ying-yang.'

[pattjock]

16 hours ago, johng said:

Today the (presumably) Navy where firing their heavy artillery,could be clearly heard in Na-Jomtien.
Maybe they need extra space around those islands for target practice.

 

According to Navigational Warnings there was a surface to air main armament exercise by royal Thai navy yesterday 13:00 17:00 just offshore NaJomten. This area is frequently used for this purpose

 

 

[johng]

3 minutes ago, pattjock said:

According to Navigational Warnings

Thanks for that    is there a web site to peruse these warning or are they strictly "need to know" info ?

[pattjock]

Warnings can be found here, sometimes only the day before t will happen.

 

http://www.hydro.navy.mi.th/NTMs/NavWarn.html

 

 

[jaywalker]

22 hours ago, Rimmer said:

the islands themselves are uninhabited and their waters are not used for non-diving watersports or sea-walking.

What is "sea-walking"????

[Machiavelli]

19 hours ago, joecoolfrog said:

Why would a ' high quality luxury tourist ' choose to dive in the gulf rather than the Andaman ?

"High quality luxury tourists" don't go to the gulf or the Andaman. Hate to break it to you but they don't come to Thailand. 

[Basil B]

8 hours ago, jaywalker said:

What is "sea-walking"????

 

As far as I know they have not lost any diver walkers              ...yet.

Edited April 1, 2017 by Basil B

[USPatriot]

If they want to protect the reefs they should ban all of the sewage being pumped in to the ocean. 

 

I thought they were going to transform pattaya from party city into a sport and nature tourist destination. So this is done by closing a sport and nature based industry.

BRILLIANT! 

Edited April 1, 2017 by USPatriot

[joecoolfrog]

On Saturday, April 01, 2017 at 7:01 AM, Machiavelli said:

"High quality luxury tourists" don't go to the gulf or the Andaman. Hate to break it to you but they don't come to Thailand. 

 

On Saturday, April 01, 2017 at 7:01 AM, Machiavelli said:

"High quality luxury tourists" don't go to the gulf or the Andaman. Hate to break it to you but they don't come to Thailand. 

Oh I think you will find many top end divers visit the Andaman .Then again you think it rests solely on the shores of Thailand so your ignorance is understandable.

[Basil B]

On 01/04/2017 at 4:08 PM, USPatriot said:

If they want to protect the reefs they should ban all of the sewage being pumped in to the ocean. 

 

I thought they were going to transform pattaya from party city into a sport and nature tourist destination. So this is done by closing a sport and nature based industry.

BRILLIANT! 

Human wast is probably only a small fraction of the content of untreated wast water that gets pumped out to sea, I understand there may be an issue with some sewage plants being out of action and there not being enough of them, so just pumping wast straight out to sea, but there is probably a lot more animal wast washed of the land or just hosed out of intensive farm sheds straight into rivers that flow into the sea untreated, and do not forget fish do more than just piss in the sea...

 

In actual fact the reefs depend on this as food, but there again too much can kill the reefs.

 

But if you really do not want to swim in human sewage, find an un-populated island hundreds miles from any populated land or island.  

[USPatriot]

On 4/2/2017 at 8:55 AM, Basil B said:

Human wast is probably only a small fraction of the content of untreated wast water that gets pumped out to sea, I understand there may be an issue with some sewage plants being out of action and there not being enough of them, so just pumping wast straight out to sea, but there is probably a lot more animal wast washed of the land or just hosed out of intensive farm sheds straight into rivers that flow into the sea untreated, and do not forget fish do more than just piss in the sea...

 

In actual fact the reefs depend on this as food, but there again too much can kill the reefs.

 

But if you really do not want to swim in human sewage, find an un-populated island hundreds miles from any populated land or island.  

But no complaints about hundreds of million gallons of waste pumped in to the ocean.  Just don't step on coral.  Can't you see the irony 

[Bill Miller]

The Navy does not, I expect, give two s--ts about about inconveniencing tourists or the Pattaya economy.
They are doing good work at Ko Samae San and other islands under their jurisdiction in protecting and replenishing sea turtles, rare plant species, and delicate corals.
Without such conservation measures there arguably will not be anything worth diving to see.

Edited April 12, 2017 by Bill Miller

[Rhys]

...follow the money....