Aquanauts Dive students help restore sea turtle population
24 interns and staff from Aquanauts Dive
Centre visit
the Sea Turtle Conservation Center in Sattahip Naval Base.
Staff reporters
After diving regularly alongside endangered sea turtles, a group
of Pattaya scuba diving instructor trainees got a chance to help rebuild
their population by releasing juvenile turtles into the wild.
During a Nov. 25 excursion to the Royal Thai Navy’s Sea Turtle
Conservation Center in Sattahip, 24 interns and staff from Aquanauts
Dive Centre, a PADI 5-Star Career Development Center on Soi 6 near Beach
Road, were treated to a lecture and video presentation about the Navy’s
work to rebuild Thailand’s five endangered breeds of sea turtles, tour
an educational exhibit, visit its aquarium and nursery and, in a grand
finale, release 6-month-old baby turtles into the sea.
“As a leader in protecting the area’s marine environment, Aquanauts
wanted to give our students first-hand knowledge about one of the
creatures they see and dive with every day,” said Aquanauts Managing
Director Roger M. Smith.
“As divers, we all get excited when we are lucky enough to see a sea
turtle on a dive. They are so beautiful and graceful as they move
effortlessly through the water,” said Aquanauts IDC Staff Instructor
Sally Rathbone. “However, more importantly, they play key roles in
ecosystems that are critical to them as well as to humans. If sea
turtles were to become extinct, the negative impact on beaches and the
oceans would be enormous.”
Divers can expect to find Olive Ridley, Hawksbill, Loggerhead,
Leatherback and Green turtles while in Thailand with Green turtles being
the most common in Pattaya Bay. Green turtles are also the most
endangered of all of Thailand’s sea turtles. The Navy’s Sea Turtle
Conservation Center is combating this by rescuing eggs laid on Koh Khram
and two smaller islands nearby that all fall under Navy jurisdiction and
working with fishing fleets around Thailand to protect the animals while
still preserving the fishermen’s way of life.
A key part of that is rescuing eggs after they’re laid. The center has
gone from raising just 700 turtles a year to more than 20,000 today.
They are raised in nursery tanks until they are six months old. Tank
water is changed daily and sick turtles are nursed back to health while
kept in isolation.
“I was surprised by just how much work the center does, releasing more
than 20,000 turtles per year,” said IDC Staff Instructor Megan Smith.
“It was fascinating seeing so many turtles so close together and we were
fortunate to be the only group there at the time, so we had lots of time
to ask questions and observe these amazing creatures.”
The highlight of the day came after the lecture and tour when all the
interns went to the waterline to set a few of the baby turtles back into
the sea. “We all stood back, watched in awe and took photos at what must
be a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Smith said.
More than 200,000 students and community groups visit the center each
year although many don’t get the same opportunity to set turtles free.
The center plans to release 983 turtles back into the wild Dec. 5 in
honor of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej on his 83rd birthday.
The meat of the sea turtles and their eggs are regarded as delicacies in
many parts of the world, especially in Asia. The combination of poachers
and natural threats from birds and sea creatures mean the survival rate
for unprotected turtles is about 1 in 100. With the Navy’s help, that as
increased to 50 percent, said Lt. Cmdr. Kwanmoung Karestre, a center
guide.
The Navy visit is only part of Aquanauts’ commitment to preserving the
marine environment. In addition to regular beach and reef cleanups,
Aquanauts exclusively offers a program it calls “Eco-Tec Dive Training”
which gives all its professional-training students a free suite of
environmental courses, including the Project AWARE marine conservation
course, Project AWARE Coral Reef Conservation and National Geographic
Diver, which teaches students to identify plants and animals as well as
document the man-made impact on dive sites.
Aquanauts divers are also taught not to chase or try to touch the
turtles while diving, not to dispose of plastic bags in the sea as
turtles eat them thinking they’re jellyfish, a favorite turtle food. And
Aquanauts also urges students not to buy any turtle products, such as
meat and eggs, or any product made of their shell, such as jewelry,
hairbrushes or other fashion items.
“The work done by the Sea Turtle Conservation Center is vital to the
survival of these beautiful animals,” said Rathbone who, with Megan
Smith, developed Aquanauts’ Eco-Tec curriculum. “But we also need to do
our bit as divers to help them if we want to continue to see the sea
turtles on our dives.”
Lt. Cmdr. Kwanmoung Karestre instructs
visitors how to
best release the young turtles back into the wild.
Twitter-powered American duo named Internet Pattaya ambassadors
Bob James
An American couple that Twittered, YouTubed and
Facebooked their way to the top of the virtual ballot box have
been selected by the Tourism Authority of Thailand to promote
Pattaya as a tourist destination using Internet “social media”.
Florida residents Ben Reed, 28, and partner Brian Sommer, 29,
arrived in Pattaya Dec. 10 for a six-day assignment to tour and
promote the city using websites such as Twitter, Facebook and
YouTube. At the same time, they’ll be encouraging fans to vote
for them over four other teams vying to win $10,000 and the
title of “Ultimate Thailand Explorers.”
For Reed, a corporate trainer, and Sommer, a physical therapist,
beating out hundreds of potential Pattaya ambassadors worldwide
proved a daunting task.
“While some teams had been to Thailand before or lived there, we
had not,” Sommer said in an interview from this Orlando home.
“So it was challenging during the entry period to promote
Thailand without having been there before.”
Ben
(left) and Brian (right) have been selected by the Tourism
Authority of Thailand to promote Pattaya as a tourist
destination using internet “social media”.
They compensated by highlighting Thai-related activities near
them, including Thai restaurants, a cultural booth at Walt
Disney’s Epcot Center and where to buy Thai travel books.
“This helped us to build an Internet following and demonstrated
we had the necessary skills to repeat these efforts for
Pattaya,” he said. “The TAT noticed our work and selected us as
semi-finalists.”
Another eye-opener was Pattaya itself, which the two admitted
they’d never heard of before entering the contest.
“What may come as a surprise is that even many of our friends
and family also had not heard of Pattaya or its reputation,”
Sommer said. “And while we’ve done a lot of research about the
city since we applied, we still don’t know what to expect once
we arrive. Every travel guide that we have read mentions
Pattaya’s storied past and present, but we believe behind every
curtain and neon sign is a vibrant community of people who want
to connect and tell their story. Our goal is to find that story,
bring it to life and share it with the world and create a new
story for the future.”
It’s unlikely the two will see much neon during their
TAT-chaperoned Pattaya holiday. The pair has been given a list
of “must see” attractions including Underwater World, Ripley’s
Believe It or Not!, Flight of the Gibbon, the Tiffany Show and
Pattaya Beach. They also get to choose from a TAT-approved list
of optional outings that include family-friendly Pattaya
Floating Market, Million Years Stone Park, Bottle Art Museum and
Yannasangwararam Temple, as well as Walking Street.
On their Facebook “fan page,” the couple is letting fans vote on
what optional attractions they should visit.
“Our research on Pattaya has shown a diversity of experiences
for adults, locals, families and young backpackers,” Sommer
said. “We look forward to sampling a bit of every perspective to
help make Pattaya a part of every traveler to Thailand’s
itinerary.”
That TAT wants that diversity shared through social media shows
just how important the Internet’s role in learning about and
booking holiday destinations has become.
For Reed and Sommer, the work began with Twitter, a
“micro-blogging” website where dispatches are limited to 140
characters and accessed largely on mobile phones. Today they
have more than 270 “followers,” or subscribers, and add about
five a day, Sommer said.
“We initially concentrated our efforts on just Twitter but while
Twitter is still a powerful tool, the majority of Internet users
communicate through Facebook,” he said. Today most of the duo’s
efforts go into their fan page, which can host links, videos and
photos. As of last week, the pair had 170 fans with about 60
more subscribing each week. They also have started harnessing
the power of the Web’s largest social-media site, YouTube, by
producing videos and letting fans add comments.
It started as a lot of work and now has gotten to be nearly a
full-time job.
“The chance at a free vacation was certainly an attraction but,
as the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch,”
Sommer said. “We’ve worked awfully hard on our various social
media sites to have this opportunity.”
Since being named one of 25 semi-finalists, the pair spent up to
two hours in the morning and as many as four hours each evening
catching up on Twitter ‘tweets,” creating and editing videos,
uploading content, searching for new communities to reach out to
and promoting their work, he said.
“Now that we are finalists, our workload is increasing each day
as we chart out the daily blogs. It’s safe to say that if
something doesn’t help out our efforts to promote Pattaya, it’s
been placed on hold.”
Their efforts will go into overdrive once they return home from
Pattaya and they get into the last three weeks of competing
against teams representing Bangkok, Samui and Phuket to see how
can best harness today’s hot Web technology to promote their
cities and win the Ultimate Thailand Explorers’ title Jan. 8.
“Traveling internationally or just in your own backyard is an
enriching chance to discover more about your community and
yourselves,” Sommer said. “Many travelers neglect the discovery
part. They may visit the highlights, but miss learning what
really makes a city come to life. We don’t know what that will
be for Pattaya, but that’s part of the fun of traveling.”
Reed and Sommer can be followed on Twitter at www.
twitter.com/benandbrianthai and Facebook at www.
facebook.com/pages/Ultimate-Thailand-Explorers-Ben-Brian/128431649795.
Their blog and more information on the TAT contest can be found
at www. ultimatethailandexplorers.com.
Navy, governments join to promote Pattaya as wreck diving destination
New Pattaya Dive Club formed
(L to R) Captain Chettha Jaipium, director of the
Civil Navy Military; Dr. Dhorn Dhamrongsawasdi, advisor to the director of
Marine and Coastline Resources Department; Hans Ulrich, head of PADI South East
Asia; Niti Kongkrut, director of TAT Pattaya; Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome; Serm
Phenjati, hotel consultant, dusitD2 baraquda pattaya and Mikamin Charujinda,
director of the Marine and Coastline Resources Department launch the new Pattaya
Dive Club.
Staff reporter
Pattaya officials, the Royal Thai Navy and the Tourism Authority of
Thailand have joined forces to market Pattaya as a premier wreck-diving
destination with the formation of a new dive operator club and the sinking of
another shipwreck within two years.
Tentatively called the Pattaya Dive Club, the association will promote all the
city’s dive companies through a joint internet website that will be advertised
worldwide with funds from both the city and the dive operators.
At a Nov. 28 seminar at the DusitD2 Hotel in Pattaya, Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome,
TAT Pattaya Director Niti Kongkrut, PADI Thailand Regional Director Hans Ulrich,
Navy Capt. Chettha Jaipium and Dhorn Dhamrongsawasdi, advisor to the director of
the Marine and Coastline Resources Department discussed ways to develop a
tourism plan to bring divers to Pattaya. Officials agreed that while areas such
as the Similan Islands offer better coral-reef diving and more wildlife, Pattaya
has a unique draw in its three existing deep wrecks, the HTMS Khram and Kood and
the Hardeep wreck in Samae San.
Ulrich said Mayor Itthiphol and Niti Kongkrut were especially enthusiastic about
promoting wreck diving and that Navy officials discussed the possibility of
sinking yet another wreck within one to two years. Much will depend, he said, on
the ability of Pattaya-area dive centers to cooperatively promote and advertise
the city as a destination and not just their own businesses.
Itthiphol has already signed up to earn his Open Water Diver certification and
Niti has volunteered to temporarily head the new dive club until dive operators
can get together and name their own president.
Bangkok Airways congratulates TAT’s new governor
M.L. Nandhika Varavarn (3rd right), vice president
of Bangkok Airways’ Corporate Communications presents a bouquet to congratulate
Surapol Svetsreni (3rd left) as the newly appointed governor of the Tourism
Authority of Thailand.
Winter flights surge heralds
Thai tourism recovery
Sirima Eamtako,
TTG Asia
The number of winter flights to Thailand has increased, according to Thai ground
handler LTU Asia, indicating a possible recovery in the Thai tourism sector.
LTU saw an overall growth of five to seven percent in the number of winter
flights from airlines it handles at Phuket and Krabi International Airports.
The company expects to handle 800 scheduled and chartered flights by 10 airlines
to Phuket from October 27 to March 27, 2010.
LTU Asia managing director Raymond Honings said all flights would be operating
at full load factor, bringing in around 200,000 travelers to Phuket alone for
the winter season. These flights were on top of the other scheduled and
chartered services to Phuket not handled by the company.
“Thailand is still a value for money destination. The euro and Australian dollar
remain strong against the Thai baht so the country has the potential to win back
tourists in this high season.”
Meanwhile, LTU expects to handle 112 flights to Krabi International Airport
during the October to March winter season.
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