The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) integrated coastal management plan has been developed with the JMPRS over the past three years. The environmental management plan focuses on the surrounding ecosystems and communities in Mai Khao.
This holistic approach takes into consideration the mangrove forest, Pru Jet Sun lake, Mai Khao Beach and finally Mai Khao Reef in front of the JWMPRS and the Anantara Mai Khao Villas.
Only if there is a combined focus and strategy for all of these ecosystems and how they integrate and work together, will the resort be able to be environmentally sustainable long-term and thus see these ecosystems flourish in the years to come.
With the mangrove and lake projects, the Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation (MKMTF, a IUCN Member organisation) is currently building a turtle shelter at the JWMPRS for four injured turtles. As part of the IUCN integrated coastal management plan, the turtle shelter and facility will offer a home and a base to the MKMTF for research and conservation. A key portion of this holistic strategy and project is to develop a community-based coral restoration programme for the Mai Khao house reef.
The research dive last Monday was jointly hosted by the JWMPRS and the MKMTF and was led by Professor James True from Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai. He is an expert in marine coral ecosystems and environments and, in fact, organised the International Coral Bleaching Seminar two years ago at the JWMPRS. The technical research dive organised by the MKMTF, held the following initial goals:
- Identify the potential area
- Plot the potential area
- Photograph the potential area
- Begin to catalogue the eco system of the area
- Develop a strategy for the selected area
The eight-person dive team included a range of divers from Prince of Songkla Universtiy, IUCN, MKMTF, JW Marriott, Sea Bees Diving and The National Parks. Sea Bees Diving also provided all of the equipment and the dive boat for the new project. The MKMTF and Sea Bees have recently signed a MoU which marks Sea Bees as the official dive partners of the Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation.
They will be working together to protect and conserve the marine ecosystem of Phuket and, in particular, Mai Khao.
The dives
Professor James True, Prince of Songkla Universtiy, Hat Yai, explained the interesting findings of both dives. The first dive took place on offshore rocks, he said, “This is interesting from the point of high abundances of nephtheid soft corals and juvenile fishes (especially several species of snappers), and the swarm of lion fish.
“Less abundant were several types of small gorgonians, and harp corals, and a few encrusting hard corals. The low visibility and difficulty to dive make it problematic for inexperienced divers, but it would be interesting for macro photographers.”
The second dive site took place on the house reef. Professor James said, “This reef appears to have been completely annihilated by the 2010 mass bleaching event and has not really recovered. In some ways, this is surprising, since the indicators for recovery show no real red flags (some amount of disease, but water quality and substrate availability are fine).
“Juvenile abundances are not high, but comparable with other near shore reefs. Number of adult colonies is very low, however, and prevalence’s of physical damage and partial mortality are high. For the most part, this is due to the concentration of discarded and broken fishing gear that drapes the reef. This is mostly small nets and monofilament lines.
“Recruits of all families were observed, but adults of most families were absent. Turbinaria was the most common adult coral (2 spp), followed by Euphyllia and Diploastrea. Small Acropora colonies were reasonably common, but frequently encumbered by netes and in poor condition”.
Recommendations
Following the dives, Professor James said that he believes that the reef would likely respond well to active restoration. When it was discovered a decade ago, it was diverse and supported 80 per cent coral cover.
He said the first steps should be to include removal of rubbish, especially fishing equipment. The presence of healthy adult giant clams (Tridacna) suggests that benefits would accrue from obtaining large numbers of juveniles from government hatcheries and culturing them on the reef to provide a nexus for natural reseeding.
Likewise, it should be possible to augment the natural recruitment of corals by inserting nubbins sourced from donor reefs directly into the abundant substrate. This process should be undertaken carefully, especially since the hydrodynamics of the site would tend to destroy the structures often used elsewhere. Cultured larvae settled onto modular plugs that can be inserted directly into the substrate would provide the best long-term sustainable solution, with gametes for culture being harvested at spawning time from nearby reefs that suffered less from the bleaching.
As the team move forward together, they will develop an action plan and engagement strategy for the project.
Sea Bees are working with the MKMTF partners to bring this project to the public by developing a set of research dives that will be open for the public to enjoy.
To follow their progress visit www.maikhaomarineturtlefoundation.org and see the weekly updates for the upcoming Turtle Shelter and Education Centre which is set to open this year on Songkran day.