Sidestepping the massive economic hardship for one moment, closing Thailand's beaches and tourism industry down for the #covid19 pandemic may well have been the most effective environmental strategy yet.
Just 4 weeks since the noisy, low flying island flights, the jet skis, the dive boats, the tourists swimming noisily on beaches and the marine park speedboat tours stopped, Thailand is seeings its' marine environment bouncing back to health, surprisingly quickly.
Just hours ago, the Thai environmental news had a DOUBLE WHAMMY of awesome news:
A herd of no less than 30 massive dugongs was seen relaxing in shallow waters off the Thai island of Koh Libong, a small island off Thailand's south western Andaman coast, south of Krabi and just off the coast from the Hat Khao Mai National Park. You can read more about it here from Channel News Asia.
Dugongs are a threatened species in Thailand. Just a few months ago, one dugong was spotted - and rescued (and sadly, later died) - after ingesting plastic bag waste drifting in the ocean. 30 healthy dugongs just wandering on by, without a seeming care in the world? It's as if they KNOW they won't be disturbed.
In the same 24 hour window...
Image credit: The Nation, Thailand
A pod of false killer whales, each one about the size of a school bus, was spotted off the coast of Koh Rok, and small island near Koh Lanta in Krabi Province. False killer whales are actually a large species of dolphin and grow up to 6 meters in length, hence their name. They have not been seen before in these waters.
More about that story Here.
Both of these sightings come on top of amazing TURTLE news
Rare endangered leatherback turtles, the world's largest sea turtles, have reclaimed beaches in Phuket and Phang Nga and laid the highest number of nests in 20 years.
Image credit: Reuters
"The 11 turtle nests authorities have found since last November were the highest number in 20 years", said Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong, the director of the Phuket Marine Biological Center. "This is a very good sign for us because many areas for spawning have been destroyed by humans," he told Reuters. No such nests had been found for the previous five years. "If we compare to the year before, we didn’t have this many spawn, because turtles have a high risk of getting killed by fishing gear and humans disturbing the beach." Source.
#coronavirus arrived in Thailand mid January with the influx of Chinese tourists for Chinese New Year, and the country has been on quarantine lockdown for only 4 weeks.
Imagine if we simply left the beaches closed for 6 months, or a year? And left Mother Nature alone for a while?
- What if we NEVER allowed jet skis in the water ever again?
- What if the only boats allowed in Marine National Parks had to be flat-glass bottomed, electric and silent?
- What if diving was restricted to only very limited areas without a special license?
- What if cheap low flying tourist flights coming in over reefs were drastically cut down or, Sweet Goddess forbid, we went back to using ONLY the chugging sea ferry which disrupts marine life minimally?
Going back to "tourism normal" really isn't an option for our environment.
Wondering how best we might collectively stand up and applaud Mother Nature, and make it clear we ONLY want to support sustainable tourism? Would you sacrifice part of your Thai island holiday experience and stay off the beaches to save the turtles, the dugongs and the dolphins?
Your thoughts?
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