26th April 2018 - Expansion of Junkyard

So we've finally finished all of the coral pyramids for our 'Artificial Coral Reef Expansion' and have deployed them by means of longtail, lift bags ..by which was no mean feat.  

Next coral transplants and lots of them!  :-D

Recap – Junkyard is our artificial reef which is about 400 meters from Crystal Dive

In 2009, Eco Koh Tao created an artificial dive site from trash that was intended for landfill. Instead of metal and other substances ending up dumped, burnt or buried, we recycled it, make it ocean friendly and created structures for coral transplants and fish aggregation.

9 years later, an incredible amount of divers enjoying the marine life and the coral nurseries that we have developed and maintained since its inception.

However, since the dive site has become so popular, we needed to expand by creating new coral transplant structures.  To raise the necessary funds, Simon set up a fund-raising campaign on Generosity back in January. Our target was 3000 USD which we’ve now passed as well as getting donations from various dive schools that use Junkyard on a regular basis.

5 months down the line, we have only just finished (by the way it was mostly Simon that did most of the work) the immense job of building, welding cutting and deploying all or our 36 Coral Pyramids, each one holding minimum of 80 coral transplants! That doesn't include the hundreds that we will be able to transplant on the connecting beams.

These structures will serve many uses, such as research of coral growth, attracting marine life to them for protection also provide an entertaining and educational experience for scuba divers. Taking pressure from divers on the natural reef enabling it to grow easier with less diver impacts and help in the fight against climate change and coral bleaching.

One of the first pyramids

Deployment 

 

Birdseye view of what it will look like.  The center piece is being done by The Art Rising who contacted me months ago wanting to make a underwater structure in exchange for their Open Water Course, so we thought, why not?!