Wicked Diving - Reef Guradians

On 21st and 22nd of Dec, Diego Ballesteros, one of our instructors, together with staff of other two dive centers that operate in the area, attended to a training program in the Similan island 4, organized by the Similans National Park Headquarters, the Surins National Park Headquarters and SAMPAN (Strenghtening Andaman Marine Protected Areas Network), to become a "Reef Guardian".

This pilot program intend to take advantage of the skills of dive/snorkel guides that work everyday in either of the National Parks (NP) to survey selected reefs once a month during this season, to collect relevant data that will help to evaluate their health status. The technique used for the survey is an adaptation of the "Reef Check", but is much more flexible, which allows a guide on duty to perform it.

It consists on the following, the guide leads his group on a normal tour (dive), takes the "Reef Guardian Slate" and tries to follow the same route that last month for roughly the same length/time and on the way counts individuals of some target species of fish, invertebrates and records signs of reef threats, being as accurate as possible but at the same time allowing to control his group and giving them an enjoyable experience. The results of the survey are sent to SAMPAN, that, together with researchers in the Prince of Songkhla University-Phuket, will analyze the data to determine the reefs status.

The Wicked Diving staff will be surveying Anita's Reef and West of Eden every month for the next 4 months and will send this information to help out in the research developed on the reefs of the Similan Islands.

To be continued...


-Similan Dive Center