Phi Phi - Day 5

Out to sea with great conditions again today.  Our first dive was at Ko Bida Nok to conduct the chaetodont assessment on a reef in excellent condition.  We are comparing the chaetodont (butterflyfish and bannerfish) species richness with that found at the reef in Ton Sai Bay, which is in terrible condition.  After lunch, we returned to the coral nursery and transplanted coral fragments that had been growing for a year onto vertical spikes of a metal frame in a dead reef.

At 7:00 in the morning, here come our students down the street toward the dive shop on the way to the boat.

Ajarn Wayne, Moose, Gabby, Katie, and a Thai kid who likes Chicago and Michael Jordan.

The kids going down the ramp to get on the Reef Ranger, our dive boat.

Check out the banner on the side of the boat.  We'll take it underwater tomorrow for our class photo.

Off we go for more reef conservation studies.

A view of the south end of Phi Phi Don.

With dive slates in hand, Kyle and Gabby are recording each species of chaetodont they see.

Anna.

Katie.

Feather stars are echinoderms and related to starfish. 

Here's a beautiful, delicate coral.

Loads of yellow snappers.

Two-spot snappers.

See if you can get this video to play.

On the dive deck, we have a white board that is checked before we leave a dive site to be sure we have everyone on board.

After lunch, we returned to the underwater nursery.  Here are marine scientists from the PMBC (Phuket Marine Biological Center) who are removing year-old corals from the racks for transplantation into a dead reef.

Here comes Kyle with a basket into which the scientists will place some coral fragments.

Katie giving the two-handed awesome sign.

Kyle now is carrying the fragments to the site on the reef where the metal frames have been placed.

We passed a beautiful reef on the way...

Here's the dead reef with metal frames positioned.

Students and instructors are all participating in this activity.  They are bringing the coral fragments and other baskets containing clippers and cable ties.

Gabby is attaching a coral fragment to a metal spike using cable ties.

Annie.

Max.

Look at the fantastic buoyancy skills our students have acquired in only a few days of diving.  This is why we had to spend a couple days enjoying ourselves with fun dives before we could work with corals.  Buoyancy skills are critical for this work.  And still, a few of our students bumped into urchin spines and rested bare legs on sea anemones.  The latter use nematocysts like jellyfish, which produce a mild stinging sensation.  The remedy is to pour vinegar on the affected skin.

Alyssa.

Here's a completed metal frame with coral fragments.

M - I - Z

Z - O - U