A chance to help a worldwide organisation monitoring the health of the world's coral reefs
In this feature Ian Shaw introduces Reef Check, a Long term coral reef monitoring Program that has recently come to Koh Chang
Reefcheck is a methodology and an organisation dedicated to the long term monitoring of coral reefs around the world. It was established in 1997 by Dr. Gregor Hodgson at the request of Professor Ginsberg both of whom realized in the early 1990’s just how little was known about the current state of coral reefs around the world. This year marks the tenth anniversary of Reefcheck and we are busy preparing a ten year report on the last decade’s efforts. Reefcheck data is widely used by the scientific community, government agencies and large organisations like the United Nations to assess the state of coral reefs. Agencies of the world like the United Nations have taken this task much more seriously since the now well documented Coral Bleaching which took place in 1997 when over ten percent of the world’s reefs vanished.
Here in Koh Chang you will see when you visit one of the splendid coral reefs, some wonderful examples of the planet’s most ancient organisms. It is the Hard corals that build reefs and although some of these corals grow quickly others take decades to grow even a few centimeters which is why all of us (locals and tourists) that interact with this fantastic environment need to have a basic understanding of the impact that humans have on this alien world that lives below the waves.
Get Involved
On this island you will find two dive centres - B.B. Divers and Scubadivethailand.com, and one retail outlet - Koh Chang Dive Supply, that have taken the step of becoming action orientated in their efforts to monitor the state of the coral reefs in this area. If you share the same concerns as they do and wish to find out how you can be trained in coral reef monitoring protocols contact them directly or visit our website at www.reefcheck.org.
