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To promote long-term marine life research projects in order to:
- learn more about sea life through study and observation;
- understand the threats facing reef ecosystems;
- act to conserve coral reef systems.
Project Director Kevin Garner has many credits for film work at the BBC, and previously worked at the Sydney Aquarium. He has conducted reef conservation projects in Maldives, Kenya, Mexico, as well as Krabi, Thailand.
Welcome to ReefWatch Project Training!
Once you've settled in to your Krabi accommodation, you'll receive an overview of the many different kinds of projects and training you can expect during your stay.
ReefWatch training programmes start with a basic foundation in marine life identification and data collection techniques. You learn as you dive and the groundwork for the more challenging projects will already be familiar to you by the time you proceed.
So you can see that no prior diving or research experience is required. Just enthusiasm and an interest in marine life!
A Day in the Life of a ReefWatch Project
Having completed training as a project diver, you and the rest of your team are now ready to take on the challenging and exciting conservation objectives and projects in Krabi that lie ahead.
It's an early start at the ReefWatch Dive Centre in Krabi as members of your team prepare the equipment and conduct pre-dive safety checks. Briefings are then given and you are assigned tasks for the day. Let's go diving!
Lunch is eaten on site or on the beach in Ao Nang or Phi Phi Islands. Depending on the task you have been assigned, you will either be debriefed once back onboard the boat or, if on a filming project, back in the editing suite. All data collected is then analysed and entered into our global database.
Reefwatch Projects
Each ReefWatch project involves ongoing studies aimed at increasing our knowledge and awareness of the reef and the creatures that live there, through behavioural studies.
Each project's aim is to produce an accurate and constantly updated picture of the local reef ecosystem, and also to form part of an overall easy-to-understand catalogue that includes all species in our Ao Nang study area.
Research is conducted during your diving in Krabi and each project site area is mapped and its condition evaluated and recorded. The reefs are then continuously monitored at set future dates and any damage noted, documented and controlled. Information gathered by a project is used to highlight the need for reef management and preservation techniques required to maintain an area in a life sustaining state.
ReefWatch projects also promote reef conservation by placing and maintaining buoys, constructing artificial reefs, and running environmental clean ups.
Projects produce their own films and identification guide books to the local reefs. As well as helping divers to identify marine life, ReefWatch films and guide books allow snorkellers and local people to better understand how fascinating and yet fragile our seas really are. ReefWatch films and books are distributed to local schools and educational centres free of charge. All materials are translated into to the local language by nationals who have graduated from our reef conservation programme.
Reefwatch projects are designed to teach the techniques required to successfully assist in all these studies to people from all walks of life.
Current Reefwatch Projects
Here are some examples of the types of projects ReefWatch run. You can expect to get involved in any of these:
• Behavioral Studies
Have you ever wondered why certain fish change colour? Or if they spend there whole adult lives in the same area of the reef? How often do they mate and what care is given to the young? To date, the only way we can find these things out, is to read guide books. By taking part in ReefWatch conservation and observation projects you'll learn how answer these questions for yourself.
• Coral and Sponge Growth Rate Studies
Growth rate studies are particularly important to ReefWatch for two reasons. Firstly, we are building up a picture of how reefs grow, are damaged, and then repair themselves. Once this is better understood we will be able to estimate if by quarantining certain badly damaged areas of a reef, we will allow them to regenerate. Secondly, based on what we know of corals and sponges' ability to reproduce asexually after damage, we aim to perfect methods of transplanting corals and sponges from healthy areas to areas damaged by human impact.
• Movie Making & Digital Photography Projects
Learn to operate and edit underwater video footage. Recent film projects include documenting the activities of Leopard sharks, Reef sharks, Blue-spotted Stingrays, as well as general coral reef activity. Movie making projects are the most popular Krabi diving programme.
ReefWatch Marine Life Studies
You'll be trained in and gain practical knowledge of all the following key areas of projects:
1. Basic Marinelife Identification: Familiarisation with the techniques used to recognise the different forms of life.
You will be making valid contributions to the ReefWatch database, therefore practical training is given so that you can accurately identify the specific local species you will be studying.
The programme includes a basic overview of the Linnaean "Binomial" system used by botanists and taxonomists to classify forms of life. Although the whole Linnaean system is covered, the course concentrates on the phyla, classes, orders and families most commonly encountered in our underwater world.
2. Underwater Surveying: Familiarisation with techniques used to assess and monitor the condition of corals, sponges and other reef species.
In order to build a complete picture of the underwater topography and the changes that occur, the local reefs are continuously surveyed. Each site is photo-mapped. To perform these studies you will be trained in underwater navigation, site relocation, and underwater photography techniques. You also learn how to transfer the new data to the ReefWatch database, monitoring, reviewing and contrasting with historical data, and recording growth and damage.
3. Reef Management and Preservation: Familiarisation with techniques that can be used to prevent human contact damage to the marine environment.
You'll learn about mooring buoy placement and maintenance in order to minimise damage caused by tourism. Artificial reef creation serves a dual purpose here allowing us to generate new areas for marine life safe from human interference, and also for us to study growth rates of species.
4. Underwater Video and Photography: Familiarisation with the use of underwater videography and photography to document the condition of reefs and animal behaviour.
"A picture paints a thousand words" and visual images of a reef's condition are a very effective and invaluable tool in persuading government agencies and the general public to act in conservation.
Visually documenting species also makes recognition easier both for researchers and people diving for pleasure. Again, you'll receive training on how to take pictures and make videos underwater. One of the ReefWatch project's main features is making films on the life styles and life cycles of various reef creatures to increase public awareness of marine life.
5. Behavioural Studies: Familiarisation with studying living organisms.
ReefWatch projects study marine life at a macro level, studying species only in their immediate environment. This means more detailed study is given to the habits and life style of each species, allowing a better understanding of the reef ecosystem as a whole.
6. Ongoing Studies: Familiarisation with how to assist ReefWatch when diving in the future.
After attending a ReefWatch study programme, you'll find yourself able to use your new-found skills to assess any marine environments you dive in the future. The techniques learned at Reefwatch enable you to independently study reefs all over the world.
Interested divers will see the possibility of turning reefwatching and professional diving into a full time career or pursuit. The vast amount of specific information collected and analysed will make the Reefwatch library a highly useful resource to anyone conducting studies in this area.
Scuba Training
Scuba training is undertaken through the PADI worldwide system of diver education. There is no charge made for training from no previous dive experience up to and including the level of PADI Advanced Open Water Diver. If you have no dive qualification you should be aware that this training will take one week. Therefore you may wish to consider your length of stay to benefit from the rest of the programme.
Note: If you are already a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver, you can gain your PADI Underwater Photographer or Underwater Videographer Specialty Diver qualification free of charge instead!
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