Preserving Fragile Reef Ecosystems:
Coral reefs are among the most diverse and vibrant ecosystems on the planet, supporting a vast array of marine life. These underwater wonderlands are not only visually stunning but also crucial for coastal protection, as they act as natural barriers against storms and erosion. However, reefs are facing severe threats from pollution, overfishing, and climate change. Engaging in reef clean-ups helps remove harmful debris and waste, reducing the risk of entanglement or ingestion for marine species and allowing the reefs to flourish.

Protecting Pristine Beaches:
Beaches are the gateway to the ocean, where many people experience their first connection with the marine environment. Clean beaches not only provide a safe and enjoyable experience for visitors, but also play a vital role in supporting coastal ecosystems. By participating in beach clean-ups, we prevent harmful substances from entering the ocean, safeguarding the habitat for shorebirds, turtles, and countless other marine creatures. It also helps maintain the natural beauty that attracts tourists and supports local economies.

Ripple Effects of Individual Actions:
It's easy to underestimate the impact of our individual actions, but they can create powerful ripples of change. Participating in local clean-up initiatives may seem small, but it raises awareness and inspires others to take action. Every piece of trash picked up is one less item harming our oceans. By spreading the word about the importance of reef and beach clean-ups, we can mobilize communities, governments, and businesses to adopt more sustainable practices, leading to long-term positive change.

Encouraging Sustainable Practices:
Clean-ups are not just about removing existing pollution; they are about changing behaviors and preventing future harm. By engaging in these activities, we highlight the need for responsible waste management, recycling, and reducing single-use plastic consumption. Through education and community involvement, we can inspire people to make conscious choices in their daily lives, minimizing their impact on the oceans and the planet as a whole.

Conclusion:
World Ocean Day serves as a powerful reminder that our actions today shape the future of our oceans. Reef and beach clean-ups are essential steps toward preserving these fragile ecosystems, and every small contribution counts. By coming together and taking responsibility for our actions, we can create a positive impact on a global scale. Let us embrace the power of collective action, encouraging sustainable practices and nurturing a deep appreciation for the beauty and importance of our oceans. Remember, every little help can make a significant difference in safeguarding our reefs and beaches for generations to come.

And you? What have you done today to celebrate World Ocean day?

While critically endangered, The Hawksbill Turtles are the most frequently encountered turtles on our cruises, today let's learn about hawk-billed turtle or Eretmochelys imbricata...
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All Sea Turtles, are cold-blooded creatures, belonging to the reptile family, just like snakes, crocodiles or dinosaurs!

Hawk-billed turtle, the only representative of the genus Eretmochelys, lives in the subtropical waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It is therefore quite possible to cross it in the Andaman Sea, in the midst of coral reefs. In Thailand, they can be seen both in the North Andaman (Surin and Similan islands) and South Andaman. 

Hawksbill turtles and green turtles, are both commonly seen in the Andaman Sea and hard to tell them apart at first sight. Here are a few tips to differentiate them:

Hawksbill turtles have a beak, while green turtles have a round face. 

The turtle's nose is also a good differentiation factor: those of Hawksbills looks upward, on top of their beak while green turtle's nose is forward, on the front of their face. When looking at a tutle from the front you would see the green's nostrils a lot more.

The carapace of the sea turtles are also a good way to tell them appart. The shape of the green turtle is rounder with squales next to each other and a soft edge, while the hawksbill turtle is more hear-shaped with squales overlapping each other and the edge is serrated, like a saw.

If you have a photo of a turtle from bellow and you are trying to find out if it is a green or a Hawkbill turtle, the shape will be your best friend.
The Hawksbill turtle has a longer neck, and serrated carapace (looks closely in between the two back flipper) you may also see its beak!

The hawksbill turtle is one of the few animals known to feed on sponges and is the only known spongivorous reptile. This diet make them very important to avoid sponges overtaking the reef.

Like most sea turtles, Hawksbill live a solitary life meeting only for reproduction. This turtle mates and returns to the beach where it was born, every two or three years, to lay eggs...

The hawksbill turtle digs a hole in the sand at night where it lays more than a hundred eggs.  
After about two months, these eggs will hatch. The little ones will then have to try to get back to the ocean quickly, at they risk of being eaten by birds or crabs!
Did you know? The temperature of the nest during the 60 days incubation will determine the sex of the litter! Cooler sand leads to more males hatching and vice versa.

Yes ! The hawk-billed turtle is now critically endangered. They are believed to be the most endangered of the seven species of sea turtle, with only approximately 8,000 nesting females left globally. Its beautiful carapace has been used by jewellers and for home decoration for thousands of years. Ghost fishing, by catch and sea trash are also a major treat to these gorgeous animals.

It is estimated that millions of hawksbill turtles died in the 20th century due to carapace trade. Additionally, hawk-billed turtle eggs are still eaten across the globe, and turtles themselves are killed for their flesh.

Colourful fishes have always been a favorite to tropical sea divers but have you taken a closer look at the gorgeous coral species that inhabit the Andaman Sea?  
Do you know what corals are? How coral grows to form the coral reefs (Planet earth largest living structures)  and why they are so important for our planet?
Contrary to common beliefs, corals are animals, not plants and surely neither rocks!
What you see above is actually a group of animal living under the same roof... developing over time like any living thing.

There are hundreds of species of corals! Most live in tropical seas with optimal conditions for their development: lots of light and a temperature between 25 and 30 ° C.

Hard coral are made of a rigid calcium carbonate (polyps' exoskeleton made out of limestone) and appear very much like rocks. When a polyp dies, their skeleton remains and new polyps grown on top of the last ones enlarging the coral one life at a time. Hence hard coral grows very slowly.
There are several categories of hard corals encountered in the Andaman Sea, each of these with many sub-categories and species.

With a very slow growth (from 0.5 to 4.5 cm / year), these round-shaped corals bummies constitute "the pillars" of most reefs, in the Andaman Sea and beyond! They can reach massive sizes like the multi million years bummies depicted bellow from the Burma Banks.

Soft corals are easiest identified from hard coral because they do not have a hard skeleton. They also have 8 arms per polyp. 

The Andaman Sea was gifted with several types of seafans, tall web-like fan structures in various colours. The most impressive is probably the Giant seafans (Anella mollis) which can reach 2 meters in diameter!

Not only are coral stunningly beautiful and giving the Andaman Sea its colours but they are so much more important than for background imagery! 
1- coral feed small critters and fish that feed the bigger ones, no coral= no more fish!
2- 500 million people make a living from coral reefs: from fisheries to tourism
3- coral reefs can reduce waves by 95% and could save the coastline from the damaging effects of tsunamis and storms
4- Coral reefs are also the lung of our planet! Generating half of our planet's oxygen and absorbing about a third of the carbon dioxide generated from fossil fuels usage.

This slightly crazy idea was born from an observation as sad as it is known: the seas and oceans are infested with plastic waste. This waste is reduced to fragments that have terrifying consequences for the environment, especially for the marine animals that swallow it. These often die of suffocation by residues invisible to the naked eye.

The Manta is the first offshore vessel capable of collecting and processing in continuous flow large quantities of plastic macro-waste floating on the surface of the oceans, while carrying out scientific missions and carrying out actions to raise public awareness and promote the circular economy.
​A conveyor belt located under the boat sucks up waste. Inside, a team of operators will separate the waste from organic matter, which will return into the sea. The Manta will also be equipped with a crane at the rear to collect the drifting nets, as well as a pyrolysis system that transforms non-recyclable waste into fuel. The recyclable waste collected will be compacted into 1m3 blocks. A single boat can hold 600 blocks, or 250 tonnes of waste, which will be brought to land for recycling.
Its designer, the Swiss sailor Yvan Bourgnon wants to build a fleet of around 100 boats to optimise operational efficiency.

The energy autonomy of the Manta is optimised by concentrating many innovative technologies for the production of energy from renewable sources while limiting its overall carbon footprint through sails.

The electricity necessary to power the rigs and electric motors will be supplied by conventional generators as well a waste to energy conversion turbines, wind turbines, hydro-generators and photovoltaic solar panels.

The Manta is the very first macro-waste collector vessel of its kind. A consortium of companies from different sectors shapes the projectin collaboration with The Sea Cleaners association, created in 2016.
Construction of the Manta is expected to begin in 2022. Project budget: 35 million euros. More than a third has already been gathered, from private patrons. Wind turbines, solar panels, tidal turbines… This large catamaran will embark and showcase various renewable energies. After a first year in Europe, in the Mediterranean, he will head to South-East Asia, mainly, "where twelve countries" represent "70% of plastic pollution in the oceans".
The Manta should begin to crisscross seas and oceans in 2024...

Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the oceans, their size implies slow growth rates and great longevity. Male Whale sharks reach sexual maturity in around 30 years (their adult size is rarely bigger than 8 meters). Females get much bigger but it takes them 50 years to be ready to conceive. 

While they could live up to 100 or 150 years old and mother a few hundreds pups, this late development implies slower potential population renewal as most whale sharks will not live long enough to have a descendant. 
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They have to steer clear of a lot of threats such as fishing nets...before they get a chance to breed.

Whale sharks are ovoviviparous and this is known thanks to a single pregnant female caught in nets in 1995 (nicknamed "big Mamma" ) containing 300 embryos in her utero at various stages of development. Some were still in their eggs, others already hatched, the biggest was 64 cm long.

Where whale sharks go to give birth is still a mystery, it is believed that whale sharks are born between 40 – 70cm but surprisingly no diver has ever seen a whale shark under 2m longs and it is still unknown where they spend their time before reaching this size. 

​As it is one of the few places they can still hide in… it is believed that baby whale sharks are born in very deep water and spend the first years of their lives at depth.

Watch a baby whale shark swimming off in this video:

​March 25th marked the departure of a very special liveaboard: our Manta and Whaleshark expedition 2021 and we got lucky!!!

​We had been working on putting this exciting trip together for the past few month, and it was an absolute pleasure to welcome onboard 2 lovely marine biologists: Ms. Jamie Piyada Monmaneerat, project leader of Thailand Manta Project and Ms. Kirsty Magson, conservationist currently documenting on the whale shark population in Thailand who alternated giving us daily presentations on Mantas, Sea slugs, Whale Sharks and the damage of plastic on the environment. 

​We sailed off from Ranong early morning with a boat full of enthusiastic divers and our itinerary took us to Koh Chi in Surin national park, Koh Tachai, Koh Bon, Rocky Point, 3 Trees, Turtle Rock, Nam Chai in the Similan islands before heading back north at Richelieu Rock; A total of 21 beautiful dives. 

​We had amazing weather conditions with blue skies and sunshine during the whole trip and as could be expected during full moon, we faced a considerable amount current during some of our dives, but this also brought it’s reward: currents make the perfect conditions to bring in large pelagic! 

On the first 20 dives, we saw turtles, jenkill rays, an eagle ray, reef sharks, countless amounts of nudibranchs, harlequin shrimp, a giant frog fish, pairs of ghostpipe fish, more anemone fish eggs now showing their eyes, and many schools of jacks, trevallies, barracudas and fusilliers and so much more!

On the very last dive, we were greeted upon entering the water for our very last dive of the trip by a stunning baby male whaleshark who graciously swam around us for the whole duration of our dive on top of Richelieu Rock. What a show!! He passed, disappeared, came back until we ran out of air... As whaleshark sightings have been sparse this season, we felt so privileged to witness this encounter and emotional that it lasted so long. What an amazing way to end our trip! 

Kirsty quickly looked into her whale shark database and was delighted to record this new individual as part of the whale shark population!
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​Another highlight of the trip was the return of Alex Tyrrell onboard, professional photographer who organized 3 black water dives. What an amazing surprise when we saw a Nautilus swimming at 5 meters on our 2nd black water dive! If you haven’t tried Black water diving yet, and you are an avid photographer, we highly recommend it, we are surely hooked!