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Save Koh Tao Marine Branch |
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The Marine Branch is a subset of the Save Koh Tao Community Group. Similar to the main group, the marine branch is a coalition of Thai and foreign locals and business owners from Koh Tao. All local land, marine, and education projects developed and initiated through the group are chosen by the community members and funded through private donations, merchandise sales, and fund raising events.
Marine conservation is vital for the long-term sustainability of Koh Tao’s economy and environment. This site describes the background and future goals of the SKT Marine Branch for the island of Koh Tao. If you would like more information on the goals and projects for this year download The Marine Branch Program Outline 2009 (pdf) which gives a very detailed overview of the program.
We believe in the free sharing of all information that can be helpful to others. Please feel free to browse around the publications section and let us know what you think.
If you have anything to contribute to this site, or would like to add your project to it, please contact us. Recent NewsThe Next Meeting for the Marine branch of Save Koh Tao will be on February 5th, 7pm at the Yao Bar in Mae Haad. At these meetings we outline activities for the upcoming month and give updates on the on-going projects. Buoyancy world deployment has finally arrived!! We will be placing down the structures using the night boat on February 7th, stay tuned for more info. Check out the Buoyancy World Page to learn more about this year's Island Wide Project.
The following is a partial list of the standards that schools must adopt to be affiliated with the Save Koh Tao Marine Branch: - Instruct all boat and shop employees as to proper safety and environmental care techniques
- Participate and donate boats, divers, or equipment to at least 60% of the Save Koh Tao Marine Branch monthly clean-up events.
- Attend at least 60% of the Marine Branch Monthly meetings
- Provide recycling at dive school and from the boats (including batteries)
- No fishing, spear fishing, or collecting of organisms from dive boats
The following dive schools have fulfilled these criteria for the last half of 2009: BansBig BlueBig BubbleBlacktip Dive Resort
Crystal Dive Resort
New Heaven Dive School
Samui Diving ServicesScuba JunctionSunshine Divers
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Save Koh Tao Marine BranchUpdate for the 2009 season
The Marine Branch of Save Koh Tao is a collaboration of local businesses and community members that are working to solve the problems faced by our reefs, and share a philosophy of sustainable development and tourism. We hope to study, protect, and restore the reefs around Koh Tao so that there beauty and function will be maintained into the future. After a very successful year in 2008, the Marine Branch of the Save Koh Tao Group will be back in action starting in January of 2009. Last year, about 20 of the island’s dive schools joined together on many social and environmental projects including:
• performing monthly land/underwater clean-ups
• planting trees and grasses on the island
• constructing a sea turtle headstarting and release program
• performing reef checks and water testing around the island
• educated divers and tourists about threats to coral reefs
• built a Biorock© alternative dive site and coral restoration site
• and much more . . .
Things moved along great in the first year due to the strong community support from local businesses and dive schools, community members, and international volunteers. This year we hope to increase both the size and number of projects we undertake and increase the amount of local involvement and cooperation in the projects. We will be continuing all of last years projects, but also adding on:
• Reef zoning and mooring buoy installation/maintenance
• Giant clam nursery
• Mid-water coral nurseries
• Increasing the Ecological Monitoring Program
• Building more artificial reef structures (including a new Biorock©)
• Working with the local school
• And promoting sustainable business practices amongst participants in our programs
Last year showed just how strong how local community could be by working together, and this year we hope to push those bounds even farther.
Thank you to all of the schools/groups that helped with last year’s projects!!!
Ace Marine Images
| Asia Divers
| Bans Diving resort
| Big Blue diving
| Big Bubble Resort
| Black Tip Resort
| Buddha View
| Carabao Diving
| | Coral Grand | Crystal Dive Resrot
| Davy Jones Locker | Dirty Nellies
| Dive Supply
| Eco Koh Tao
| Impian Divers
| Koh Tao Ozone
| Liquid Media
| New Heaven dive
| New Way Diving
| Project Aware
| Samui Diving Services
| Scuba Junction
| Sea Shell Dive Resort
| Siam Scuba Diving
| | SSI-Thailand | Sunshine Divers
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