an update finally

I’m not very good at keeping this updated, but this time I have the best explanation.

My sister and Sofie arrived to Thailand about two weeks ago and last week my dad and my uncle arrived to. I’ve been spending all my free time with them.
They also brought food and stuff to me. My sister brought beer sausages and a salami and Thor II, Sofie gave me a bottle of Champagne, and my dad brought red wine, Gruyere, Camenbert and Parmesan Reggiano cheese,  pickeled salted cucumbers, crackers and smoked side of pork.
The day they left, I ate cheese, cucumbers and cheese and watched Thor II in the evening.
The salami, red wine and rest of the cheese I will share with a few of my friends here. But the cucumbers and smoked pork is all for me J
It was really great to have them here and show them a little of the beautiful Koh Tao and Chalok.
We also went out snorkeling and saw a Green turtle.
They also got to see an autopsy of a green turtle, and so did I. The turtle was found dead in the water and brought to New Heaven Dive school where Chad and a local veterinarian performed the autopsy and took tissues samples.
It was sad but also very educational seeing how it is done and what they look for. The turtle was a female, healthy (from what we could see), and had a full stomach. We could not find any plastic in her stomach or intestines which was good.
The veterinarian think she died from drowning.
The remains of the turtle were packed in ice and sent to the Royal Navy for DNA-testing (to see where she came from) and further analysis.
This happened in the morning and that same day we went out snorkeling and saw a live turtle, it was amazing.

We’ve been diving a lot also, of course J On several dives I have been helping Angelo who is doing research on Drupella snails. That is very interesting and educational. I learn a lot by helping him and he is very good at explaining things and answer all my questions.
Drupella snails are a predator to corals. In small numbers this is not a problem for corals but when the Drupellas increase to much in numbers they will become a problem.

We’ve also been out collecting Crown of Thorns starfish (COT). The COT’s are the same as the Drupella, they eat corals. In small numbers this is not a problem but when they get to abundant something needs to be done.

Now our corals are even more sensitive to predation. The high water temperatures and strong sunlight makes them stressed which attracts both Drupellas and COT’s.
We still have no rain, no storms and very calm seas. The ocean temperature is already 34 degrees in the shallows and around 31 in the deep, and so far we can’t see any signs of help from the weather to cool things down.
On land both days and nights are really hot (I’m really happy I bought that extra fan for my room). I’m sweating constantly, A LOT J
The corals around Koh Tao is now on a global watchlist due to the rising sea temperatures. Corals do best in waters between 23-31 degrees C, when it gets hotter than that they get stressed and expel their symbiotic partner the zooxanthellae (an algae) and that’s when they bleach and turn white. They can survive in this state for a while but if temperatures doesn’t improve the coral dies.
Koh Tao has already suffered two bleaching events, one in 1998 and one in 2010, both years were years when the El Nino was particularly strong, as is this year.
The strong El Nino years come more often now due to climate change which unfortunately we humans are one to blame.
The work done here on Koh Tao and New Heaven Reef Conservation Program is very important and for me it has been and still is educational and amazing. To see how a few dedicated people can restore and protect an island like this. That is truly inspirational.
I really recommend people coming here and doing if not an internship but a course in marine conservation as a volunteer, I promise it is really rewarding and educational and you will be joining  amazing team leaders Chad, Pau, Ploy and Rahoul.

That’s it for the educational part J

Personally I love being one of the team, to help organize and clean up and fix things. I’m still learning when it comes to conservation but when it comes to organize, clean up and lend a hand at least there I feel I’m actually useful. This work is so different from sitting in front of a computer in an office all day. Of course there are days when I get frustrated being the one cleaning up and stuff but that is partly my fault, for people who knows me they understand that I don’t like to ask people to help. For me it’s a natural thing to help out but I’m still sometimes surprised by how some can just watch someone working without asking if they can help. For me that is the biggest difference between here and TRACC, on Pom Pom and with TRACC everyone always helped out without being asked.
But as I said, it’s my fault too cause I don’t ask for help. Everyone is different.

I’m still pretty much alone, I haven’t found anyone I see as a true friend that I can just hang out with. Of course there are a couple of people here that I respect and like to hang out with but it is different from Pom Pom where I found friends despite of being “not so social” me. I’m not very good at socializing and I know that is one thing I need to work on. On Pom Pom that was not a problem at all but when you are in a place with more people it turns into one in a way.
There are some great people here though, like Franz who understood I was very interested in marine life and shared all these wonderful documents/books with me, and also here I’ve had more positive feed-back on the work I do than I’ve ever had. I really do feel like I’m appreciated here for the work I do when it comes to organization and tidying things up.
I do like being alone but sometimes I miss the strong connection I felt with TRACC on Pom Pom.
But I am loving being here! And I do have a few people who I trust and respect.

I promise to get some pictures uploaded for you soon!

Mother and Terry!! I will see you in just a few months!!

By the look of the view I have now from the dive school it is same nasty weather on Koh Samui and Koh Phangnan, I wonder if that strom has enough power to manage to get through the heat coming off from Koh Tao.
I'd really like a proper tropical storm!

Now I need to book my plane ticket for my next visa-run to activate my next 60 days on my visa.

Hopefully the internet won't go down, it's been a bit shaky lately :)

Attaching corals

Here's one way we attach corals to the metal frame structures we build on land and than put down in the ocean.

Coral fragments are attached to ropes that are wrapped around the metal frame and if necessary secured with extra thread to make sure the coral stays attached firmly on the structure and touching the metal.

So there all sorted

Photo by Daniel Brinckmann

Thai New Year, installing mooring lines and more

Well I've been busy with "work" and having a good fun time lately.

We've been installing mooring lines at different sites around the island. One of the mooring line installments meant that we first had to find the Trident wreck at about 30-35 metres. I was in a team with Pau, Alej and Melody and we swam right into it and sent up the marker for Chad who then made the actual installation of the ropes. Then the surface team made the final arrangements.

Yesterday we celebrated Songran which is the Thai New Year, it was loads of fun and involved a lot of water being thrown, talk powder being smeared on your face and a lot of drinking from early morning :)
It was an awesome day together with the New Heaven and Koppee team with lots of laughs, love and friends enjoying themselves.

Tonight is full moon, so in a few days we will be night diving again to watch for the coral spawning. Hopefully this time it will happen so that we can collect eggs and sperm for fertilization and then put the fertilized eggs in our tanks waiting for the coral larvae to settle on the concrete mushrooms we've been making during the week.
If all goes well I'll be able to watch them grow in the tanks until they are big enough to be moved into the ocean and one of our coral nursery sites.

I've also seen my sister!! I went to Koh Samui Friday-Saturday just so that I could see her, it was absolutely fantastic to see her. I realised just how much I've missed her when I saw her again. On Saturday she and Sofie is coming to Koh Tao and about a week after that my dad and uncle will join them here!! Wohooo, it's gonna be happy days!

I might have some interesting things to tell you about in my next update by the way.......

A coral feeding during daytime

Sea urchin

Pau happy for a job well done after we found Trident

Mooring line installation

Lot of tying to secure the mooring

A happy me with talk powdered cheeks

Live music during the late afternoon

some extras

chilling by the pool in Kuala Lumpur

Breakfast at Kuala Lumpur airport

Do you spot what's wrong here?

...and here?

photos

Here's some of the photos from things I've seen and done lately.

Nudibranch, before I learned how to change the white balance.

Anemone fish hiding in his home

Marbled sea cucumber

Beautiful giant clam

Construction of artificial reef

Nudibranch

A cleaner wrasse doing his job cleaning the skin of a fish

Terrys stand-in

This is Bua, she is my stand-in for Terry. She is even less interested in cuddling than he is, she is also very shy.
She has probably been treated badly when she was young cause she is a bit scared of people, but she's getting better and better each day.
She likes to hang out with the conservation team under "our" table.
She is one of the dogs that hang out around the dive shop.
She doesn't like other dogs but is really kind to people she trusts. SHe's getting to trust me more and more each day.

Busy

It's been busy the last couple of weeks. We've been diving in the day and building new artificial reef structures in the late afternoons.
The structures were made in preparation for visitors from TAT (Tourist Authority of Thailand) with guests and a group of students from the USA travelling around for 6 months on a big sailing ship.
Friday and Saturday was very intense and that group consisted of everything from underwater photographers to unexperienced and experienced divers. They were a hard group to please but the team did the best we could.
Sunday we had the group of students, they were a delight. Even though we were all tired after working hard we all enjoyed showing the students how we put down artificial reef structures and how we attach corals to them. It was a wonderful day!

After I got back I had a long talk with mum and dad over the phone, it was as always great to hear from them and get an update on things at home.
After the call I had a night out with a bit to many Gin&Tonics :) It's a dangerous drink those G&T

Today we have the day off and I've just been in front of the computer all day. They don't have the fastest of WiFi here.

I've finally learnt how to adjust the white balance when taking underwater photos, I'll post a couple of them together with some other photos of things I've seen and done since my last post.

In 12 days my sister arrives!!!! Can't wait to see her, I'm gonna hugh her to death I think. End of April my dad and my uncle will join them on Koh Tao!!
I now of a couple of restaurants like Yin and Yang, which makes really good and spicy thai food. Also a place where you have Korean barbecue. And of course I'm gonna take them to my favorite bar Why Not bar which plays reggae and also Babaloo Bar.
I am so excited for them to come here and also meet the great people here at New Heaven Dive school and also the persons at Namhasin House where I live.

Still no rain at all, it's extremly dry and the water shortage is severe. I do hope there will come a lot of rain soon.

This is all for now, I'll post photos shortly.