It's a relief to be back out in the world after getting a taste of it last fall. This time around I traveled to an island in Thailand called Koh Tao to work as an intern in a marine conservation program. All the magic is based out of a small, beachside dive shop called New Heaven Dive School.
The journey to get here… The journey was long yet very interesting. The first flight from Seattle to Portland wasn't that exciting but the flight from Portland to Tokyo was rather exhilarating. It didnt feel like eleven hours cause I kept myself occupied talking to the traveling business man next to me and watching the wide selection of movies the plane offered. After multiple delays I finally made it on to my flight to Bangkok. I met another interesting individual who traveled around the world teaching, and we talked for almost the entirety of the seven hour flight. After hunting down the shuttle that took me to my hotel I took a short nap before heading back to the airport to catch my final flight. I passed out shortly after it took off and woke up just as it landed on the island of Koh Samui. I took a taxi to the ferry station and I didn't know it at the time but I was just early enough to catch a ferry that I didn't plan on taking but did anyways because after misunderstanding what they were saying at the ticket booth one of the women that worked there helped my run my bags all the way down this hundred yard pier. After a short ferry ride I arrived on Koh Tao and took a taxi to the New Heaven Dive School where I would finally meet the directors after 20 or so hours of traveling.The next day I started my dive classes and by the end of the week I was a certified advanced diver. Not long after that I began learning the ropes. It was such a relief to just drop everything once I got to my room.
The food here is unbelievably good. Imagine your average American or Canadian thai food, then throw in some home made love with a dollop of authentic and you have a basic idea of what the food is like here for breakfast, lunch and dinner. All the places we frequent have names: sandwich lady, chicken lady, kitchen, crepe man, dough man, ice cream guy, and of course samoa man. In case I'm feeling like having a burger and fries there's even a 24 hour burger joint.
The day usually starts with grabbing an omelet on rice from the sandwich lady and making my way to New Heaven. Once there I pack up all my gear for the day and chow down before the daily lecture begins. The lectures are given by the full time staff on a variety of things from sea turtles to coral diseases to the three EMP's that we do. EMP stands for Ecological Monitoring Program. These are surveys of fish, invertebrates or substrate. For this we lay out a transect line and follow it recording what we see as we slowly swim along. The ocean is teeming with life. Every day is a possibility to see something you have never seen before. Yesterday I went snorkeling with sharks and just last week some of the dive masters followed sightings of whale sharks and got to swim with them. One of the instructors here specializes in nudibranks (but technically speaking opisthobranchia), which are a type of sea slug. May not sound like much but these little guys are really colorful and some of the most toxic things on earth, google it.
On land we make artificial reef structures, those being bottle nurseries and metal structures. For the bottle nurseries we fill a bucket with cement and then place empty bottles in the cement. Once these are made we take them out to various sites around the island and free dive them to the bottom. We use these to attach coral to in an effort to restore a reef with a lot of problems. We place these structures in areas that used to be full of life but died. I guess you could say we also build underwater attractions. Not only do these structures support a variety of life, they can be used for training divers or simply for fun divers to see things like metal whale sharks or great metal domes completely covered in coral.
The shop also has a giant clam nurseries. Giant clams are kept in underwater cages for protection until they are large enough that they wont make easy prey for poachers and other fish. Once large enough we take them out of their cages and place them around the reef. After diving comes daily turtle care. A few months ago the shop was given 11 turtles and since then the interns have been feeding and taking care of them with daily feeding and infection treatment when needed. At the moment the biggest one is about the size of my hand and it will be another 4 months or so before they are released.
There is so much to learn and with daily lectures there is always more. I have been here for almost a month and I'm loving it. The work doesn't feel like work and the people I work with are amazing. I just moved into a long term residence and I'm settling in for an awesome next two months.
