The Adventure Dive Club
Living with the Ocean
How it started
In July 2006 the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources provided 100 concrete blocks to act as a new artificial reef at Phi Phi Ley island.
The Adventure Club was commissioned by the DMCR to monitor and assess the marine life and corals that were soon after transplanted to the blocks.
With a carefully selected team of professional divemasters and Instructors the blocks were carefully lifted and positioned to form 3 concrete underwater pyramids. Each concrete block measures 1.5 cubic meters and weighs 1000 kgs.
The work took a number of months to complete.
What's the Point?
There is much conjecture on the so-called benefits surrounding artifical reefs. Some people like to use reef balls, some people use rubber tyres, while some prefer to send electrical shocks through iron bars. Some people are of the opinion that the reefs can look after themselves as they have done for hundreds of thousands of years, so why interfere?
Global impacts through anthropogenic stresses such as commercial net fishing, blast fishing, cyanide fishing, the tourism industry, loss of coastal habitats such as mangroves, and now global warming to name just a few, are putting added stress on the reef's natural ability to regenerate.
Unfortunately at the rate that reefs are being damaged and killed off, we shall see a significant loss of the world's coral reefs in the next 40 years. As important breeding grounds for many of the ocean's fish this will also force a loss in fish populations. Furthermore, coral reefs provide a considerable percentage of the planet's oxygen.
Considering the importance of the ocean's fish population's as a major food source, the implication's are extremely severe.
Objective
After making a survey in the Andaman sea, the DMCR found that 80 out of 100 divers, would make contact with a reef either deliberately or unintentionally, 4 to 5 times within a normal dive.
Considering the thousands of dives made each year on each reef it is obvious that there is considerable impact to the reef.
The concept behind creating this particular artificial reef is to see whether it can successfully attract divers and therefore reduce the pressure on the natural reef.
Furthermore, it will hopefully be another tool to help educate the nations of the world to the immediate perils facing coral reefs and the need for people to change the way they use the ocean.