Wildlife Conservation Thailand Project #18457

Rescue & Protect Sea Turtles in Thailand and Asia

by Action Change (Formerly GVI Trust)

Project Report | Mar 23, 2015
Whale Shark Awareness

By Tyrone Bennett | Head of Alumni Services

Dear Supporter,

In an effort to create sustainable marine tourism in Thailand, we have used your donations to print 30 copies of two different posters to raise awareness of whale shark diving code of conduct at local dive shops.

These posters were created to ensure that sharks in the area are not disturbed by boating and interaction activities with divers and snorkelers. In line with the whale shark Code of Conduct that was developed in 1995, our posters also prohibit attempts to touch or ride a whale shark, restricting shark movement in anyway, flash photography, the use of motorized propulsion aids and approaching the whale shark closer than 3m from the head or 4m from the tail. Our posters also limit the amount of boats and divers in the water at any given time when there is a shark in the area.

The presence of divers can cause aberrant behaviours that include changed migratory pathways and displacement from breeding and feeding grounds. This is why adhering to this code of conduct is so important for long-term sustainable marine tourism.

These measures have contributed greatly towards the goals of GVI and Shark Guardian. Seven sets of posters have already been handed out (in two different sessions), with numerous dive industry contacts being established in the process. In addition, five sets were given to Shark Guardian to have at hand and distribute when necessary. Seven is quite an achievement and we are looking forward to recruiting more dive shops in the area and handing out the remainder of the posters.

Thank you for your continued support.

All the best

GVI Phang Nga

One of our Whale Shark Awareness posters

Links:

www.gvi.org

Permalink

Dec 23, 2014
The Beginning

By Sophie Birkett | Head of Operations

Dear Supporter,

The past couple months, the staff and volunteers at GVI Phang Nga have had several opportunities to spend time with out partner, Shark Guardian. Shark Guardian are based near us in Khao Lak, even though they do work all over the world. That means we get to attend local talks and events for the Khao Lak area dive companies. It’s been great for us to not only interact with Liz and Brendon from Shark Guardian, but to form and strengthen connections with the dive companies. We partner with Shark Guardian on several of their initiatives and will continue to work with them in the future, but right now we’re particularly interested in their whale shark project. We’ve taken the lead on writing a code of conduct to change the diving practices of southern Thailand dive shops in regards to whale sharks.

Whale sharks are a fascinating animal; the biggest fish in the ocean at an average of 12-14m long. Their mouth is 1.5 meters wide and they use it to suck in gulps of water to eat tiny plankton. Whale sharks are said to be quite curious, often approaching divers to check them out, so it’s understandable why they’re such a big draw for dive companies!

Because of the attraction of whale sharks, many dive companies do things like feed the whale sharks or allow their divers to get very close to them. All this human interaction is beginning to negatively impact the whale sharks, so the code of conduct we’ve written sets up rules and guidelines to protect the whale sharks: no feeding, no touching, no flash photography, and limits on number of boats/divers nearby are examples of the guidelines that will help keep whale shark--diver interactions more natural.

Thanks to you, our donors so far, we’re going to be printing the code of conduct posters to be distributed to the dive companies that agree to follow those guidelines. The posters will have the Shark Guardian certification and let potential divers know they are choosing a company committed to the protection of whale sharks. This is a big first step in the journey to a brighter future for our whale sharks!

Next step? Workshops to train and educate the dive companies, divers, and tourists of Khao Lak!

All the best

GVI Phang Nga

Links:

http://www.gvi.org

Permalink

‹ 1 ... 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.