NAVAL coral GUARDIANS
The The Royal Royal Thai Thai Marine Marine Corps Corps turns turns its its hand hand to to protecting protecting the the local local marine marine ecosystem ecosystem
The Royal Thai Marine Corps in Chon Buri’s Sattahip district does not only perform the duty of defending our territorial waters, but is also tasked with protecting the local marine ecosystem.
‘‘The sea is our home. We do our best to protect our resources,’’ said CPO 1st Class Prajak Nokyungthong, or Khru Oh, who has been an instructor for the environmental project of the Marine Corps for a decade.
‘‘When we do not have training such as Navy SEAL [Sea, Air, Land] or Cobra Gold exercises, we use some of our human resources for environmental campaigns such as planting mangrove seedlings and rehabilitating coral,’’ he said.
The Marine Corps became involved in environmental campaigns almost a decade ago after the tsunami hit the south of Thailand.
‘‘When we saw coral reef bleaching and learned about the impact of global warming, we knew we had to do something,’’ he said.
Starting with rehabilitating mangrove forest near its naval base in Sattahip about 10 years ago, the project later expanded to replanting coral, especially staghorn coral.
It took them a couple of years of trial and error before knowing how to replant young coral in the sea with a high survival rate.
‘‘We tried many methods until we knew how staghorn coral can be replanted and grow. We know that the coral like clear water with temperatures between 27-35C and must be placed at least 3m deep. If they are exposed to too much sunlight, they will be bleached,’’ he said.
The team started planting coral near the naval base because fishing boats are not allowed to pass nor drop anchor within the area.
In the past, they used large rocks as planting beds. They made several holes in the surface of each rock, inserted one branch of coral inside each hole and sealed it with cement. Today they use PVC (polyvinyl chloride) pipes which are connected together in a square shape and with two more rows in between the frame, with nine planting holes in total for one planting bed. They are now sealed with plastic zip ties instead of cement. The new materials are easy to find and save on costs.
Living staghorn coral produce a distinct smell known as ‘‘ocean scent’’, and are green or brown in colour. If the coral are white, they are already dead, said Khru Oh. He recently instructed a group of about 200 people in Chon Buri’s Samae San district on how to plant coral.
First they took a 10cm-long plastic pipe which worked like a planting pot with a zip tie attached to the top. The second step involved inserting at least 2cm of the coral branch in the planting pot and securing it with the zip tie. Then the pot was placed in a planting bed.
‘‘The coral can survive if they are firmly attached to the base, otherwise they will soon die,’’ he said.
‘‘You need to be very careful not to drop coral on the beach because it can die. You must also finishing the planting process and plant the coral in the sea within 20 minutes.’’ With hundreds of helpers, including little children, it took us less than five minutes to fill up the back of a pickup truck with stacked-up planting beds, ready for the ocean.
Before placing each planting bed on the sea floor, naval officers filled up each PVC pipe with sand to weigh it down and also covered the planting beds with sand to make sure they will not be moved by the currents, said Khru Oh.
Coral can grow up to 30cm a year and survive for up to 500 years.
‘‘Planting coral is essential for marine ecology because they are home to fish. The more coral we have, the more places there are for fish to lay eggs,’’ he added.
In addition, the Royal Thai Marine Corps has joined hands with the Department of Fisheries to release blue crabs and baby nurse sharks back to the sea.
‘‘The blue crabs are popular seafood, so releasing them helps increase their population and indirectly benefits we humans,’’ he said, adding that nurse sharks are hard to find nowadays so the Marine Corps decided to add the baby shark to its environmental campaigns.
‘‘I am happy to be the instructor for our environmental projects because what we have done over a decade can contribute to the balance of nature and help save the environment,’’ said Khru Oh.