February 4, 2005
Coral reef assessment in Thailand after the tsunami
I just got this information off the CORAL-list.
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Subject: Coral reef assessment in Thailand after the tsunami
From: Thamasak Yeemin
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 19:51:07 -0800 (PST)
To: coral-list@coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Dear Coral-Listers, I am most grateful for your worries regarding to the tsunami. As you know, the tsunami hit six provinces of Thailand along the coastline of the Andaman Sea, namely, Ranong, Phang Nga, Phuket, Krabi, Trang and Satun. Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, seven Thai universities and volunteer diving groups conducted a rapid assessment program during December 30, 2004 to January 15, 2005 by using a survey method developed by Thai researchers. A total of 175 study sites were completely carried out and the impacts of tsunami on coral reefs were categorized in to five groups, i.e., no impact, very low impact (1-10% of corals were damaged.), low impact (11-30% of corals were damaged.), moderate impact (31-50% of corals were damaged.) and high impact (> 50% of corals were damaged.). Only 13% of the study sites were in “high impact”.
No impact study sites were around 40%. Very low impact, low impact and moderate impact study sites were 21%, 17% and 9%, respectively. Department of Marine and Coastal Resources and several universities have routine research on coral reefs in the Andaman Sea. In the case of marine Biodiversity Research Group, Ramkhamhaeng University, we have conducted a research program on development of appropriate techniques and methods for coral reef rehabilitation for sustainable tourism in certain provinces since 2001. The research has mainly focused on condition of coral reef, status and change of coral fragment, coral reproduction, ecology of juvenile coral colony, coral recruitment settlement plate experiment), status and change of partial mortality of coral colony and ecology of reef macroinvertebrates and fish. We will continue monitoring our 20 study sites in the Andaman Sea. We do appreciate any suggestion, recommendation and future research collaboration. [...]
Posted by Dida at February 4, 2005 9:41 AM
Comments
Hello,
I'm a non-scientist diver & I've been trying to work out the right organisation to contact to find out more about assisting with the coral reef clean up. Do you happen to know who I should be talking to about this?
Thanks
Rik
Posted by: Rik at January 28, 2005 1:17 AM
HI Rik- Try contacting the person who runs the org. mentioned here, or look through the list of orgs. at ReefBase. It'll take some time to make contacts, but if you have the energy and resources (meaning you can pay your own way), I know that organizations will glady welcome competent help.
Good Luck!
Dida
Posted by: Dida at January 30, 2005 7:55 PM
