Divers find Richelieu Rock coral reef intact, as FB user apologises for explosion claim

By The Nation

 

Photo Courtesy of the Marine National Park Thailand (www.facebook.com/marine.dnp/)

 

A team of divers from Mu Koh Surin National Park inspected the Richelieu Rock coral reef, a world-famous location for scuba diving, on Friday and found it to be intact.

 

Park chief Phutthaphot Khuprasit said yesterday that team, led by dive master Wirat Banleng, inspected the site to a depth of 30 metres and found that the coral reef was still fertile with many varieties of fish and young coral. Some broken pieces were due to the reef’s natural condition. 

 

There was no trace of any explosion damage, he said, as had been suggested by erroneous claims on social media.

 

Phutthaphot said he had already sent a report to National Parks Department chief Thanya Netithamkul and Environmental Conservation Office 5 head Suphot Pherdphring. 

 

He said the park officials and related agencies would patrol the area on regular basis and encouraged public members to help watch out for illegal activities and alert officials.

 

Meanwhile, the Thai Facebook user whose claim that the coral reef was damaged, possibly by fishermen using explosives illegally, deleted her original post and apologised for the misinformation.

 

In her post, Aey Payackapan said: “I have to apologise for the big misunderstanding about Richelieu Rock. Many people have been investigating and there seems to be no evidence of an explosion. The fish could have been dead by many reasons, so it was wrong of me to assume it was the explosion. Richelieu is still beautiful and full of life, and I apologise for giving such wrong information.”

 

Marine biologist Thon Thamrongnawasawat, who had expressed concerns and called for actions against the use of explosives for fishing, also posted the park’s explanation letter and Aey’s apology on his Facebook page on Saturday to help clarify the situation to the public.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30311747

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-04-08

Nobody (RTN,etc) is tacking any action against boats illegally dynamiting fish... 

and it is happening, I have seen fields of staghorn coral flattened due to  illegally dynamiting.

 

Once I recall diving and hearing a very loud explosion (and feeling the shock wave), on surfacing the nearest boat was over 500m away, what surprised me was that we were very close to Sattihip naval base and I would have expected a naval gun boat to out very quickly as it must have deafened the guys monitoring the sub detection hydrophones, but nothing happened.  

 

26 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

A team of divers from Mu Koh Surin National Park inspected the Richelieu Rock coral reef, a world-famous location for scuba diving, on Friday and found it to be intact.

Wont believe it until it has been independently verified...

The photo,shows soft corals,they take no part in building a coral reef,

would like to see photos of the actual reef,so i can believe what they

are saying is true, that there is no damage to the reef.

regards worgeordie

I'm glad to hear that the damage was exaggerated or didn't even happen at all. 

 

It's still weird though. Where did this video footage come from? 

 

 

7 hours ago, Tapster said:

I'm glad to hear that the damage was exaggerated or didn't even happen at all. 

 

It's still weird though. Where did this video footage come from? 

 

 

Plus there seemed to be a hell of a lot of dead fish!

Yes, and the FB poster did seem to say that the footage was from R. Rock but that she (?) just guessed at the reason.

 

Still, I've never seen fish like that at R.Rock. It's vibrant with thousands of fish and healthy corals and anemones.

 

    Perplexed!

With a bit of luck we'll find out the truth eventually.

 

"The fish could have been dead for many reasons".  Perhaps I'm the only diver who has rarely seen even one dead fish.

 

Although on a liveaboard to Burma Banks one year we were heading towards a dive site when warned (by another liveaboard) to avoid the site as there had been dynamite fishing and dead fish were everywhere .

 

Yes, we did a liveaboard to Burma only three weeks ago.

 

It was rubbish!

 

Fishing boats everywhere and heard dynamite at least twice.

 

Fished out, and no big things (mantas, sharks, whale sharks)!

 

Boring, boring , boring........and ******* expensive!!!

 

Never again!       

 

 

 

Just now, Tapster said:

 

Yes, we did a liveaboard to Burma only three weeks ago.

 

It was rubbish!

 

Fishing boats everywhere and heard dynamite at least twice.

 

Fished out, and no big things (mantas, sharks, whale sharks)!

 

Boring, boring , boring........and ******* expensive!!!

 

Never again!       

 

 

 

My last trip there was in '08 and it was pretty much the same then i.e. fished out/no large marine life.  Very disappointing.

 

The octopi had survived though, and I enjoyed watching them .

Yes, I love those octopuses and cuttlefish. 

 

They're a lot of fun!