This week has been a busy week filled with great vis, new divesites, new species and a visit from a very chilled out whale shark. 

We started the week by checking on the Coral Aid mineral accretion site and it was great to see the site up and running again and the bubbles releasing from the structures. 

We hopped to the old mineral accretion device at Hin Fai and we were in sea slug city. 

We then decided to throw caution to the wind and take a trip to Chumphon and Green Rock and what a day we picked. We arrived and a juvenile whale shark was cruising around on the surface. Measuring <3m this small femlae has yet to reach maturity and based on current literature puts its age at between 3 and 10 years old. 

This whale was a new animal to the Thai Whale Shark database after the ID shots of the left and right side were gathered during the sighting. 

After this amazing encounter we headed to Green Rock and found ouselves amongst the docile (thats right we said docile, for once these unpredictable sea dwellers did not want to attack and instead were dancing in the water column and coming in close to check us out) titan triggerfish and yellow margin triggerfish. Here we also found a new sighting for us a whitelipped eel catfish was hiding amongst the cracks of the rock itself. 

To finish the week we headed over to Lang Khai to collect coral watch data and work on some coral taxonomy. 

This week also marked the end of our instructor training for Mel and Aiara and we are so happy to welcome them into the Conservation Diver team. Congrats guys and a new captain for our longtai.

Until next time remember it's 

 It was a busy week this week as we packed in emp surveys, giant clam surveys and crown of thorns surveys and the students had another opportunity to practice coral disease. 

The compromised health survey allowed us to identify predation, overgrowth, coral diseases, unexplained bleaching and more.

During the crown of thorns surveys we found 12 individuals ranging in size from 38cm to 52cm.

We came across 2 common ray species on the island

We ventured into the muck in search of slugs and we were not disappointed.

Our Giant clam survey had us counting, measuring and identifying the number of clams on the reef

And of course all of the boat shenanigans

Thank you to everyone for this week, and a thank you to Huw Penson for joining us on the dives to document some of the best moments.

Until next time remember its 

This week brought about a very exciting arrival as we welcomed Bob back to Koh Tao after a year and a half. 
Bob or Robert Sevenster is the creator of the Coral Aid devices and the master behind the site that we are using for our electrified artificial reef in Aow Leuk. 

This time he brought new toys and gadgets to help with preventing some of the issues that have arisen with the old setup. Problems such as lightning storms are now solved with a sensitive sensor Bob installed that switches off the power to ensure the devices are not damaged. He also brought some underwater pugs and a shiny new NetV6 unit ready to deploy. 

All of the students were excited to meet and learn from Bob throughout the week as he explained the inner workings to one of our favourite projects. The powere is now up and running and we cant wait to head back to the site this week and see what a weekend of power has done to the fouling organisms on the Anodes and to see the bubbles rising off the sturcture. 

We were also fortunate enough to enjoy some awesome dives with some very fun creatures along the way. 


And of course when you spend most of your dive with a very relaxed turtle we have a very happy bunch of conservationists. 

We were also to enjoy some dives collecting EMP data, coral disease data, measurements of some of our coral fragments and check in on the giant clam cages. 

A busy week for all but we loved every second. 

Until next time remember its 

It was an exciting week this week as we were able to work on a whole range of projects and even sneak in a double dive at chumphon pinnacle. 

We started with drupella collection adding another 3,000 snails to our 2021 total. 



It was then time for the weekly EMP survey which took us to Tanote bay. 

The team then split as we were joined by researchers from Kasetsart University to conduct Microplastic trawls around Koh Tao.

These trawls are important in understanding the level of microplastics in our waters as well as the abundance of plankton. 

We cant wait to share the results with you in the coming weeks. 

The end of the surveys brought some suprise visitors as we were joined by 60+ False Killer Whales surfacing alongside the boat

To round of the week we first had a muck dive in Tao Tong, finding an eagle ray, many different species of sea slug, urchins and more

The end of the week was the perfect time to do a double Chumphon Pinnacle trip. Here our students completed a scavenger hunt as they were on the look out for some of the common, cryptic or uncommon species chumphon has to offer. Whilst we werent lucky enough to come across any big spotty fish, it was a great day. 

Next week we are looking forward to checking out some of the least dived areas of Koh Tao. 

Stay tuned to see what we find and until next time remember its