DIVE HAPPY

An artificial reef is going to be created in Southern Thailand's Pattani and Narathiwat provinces next month... using old garbage trucks.

The Bangkok Post yesterday ran a story about how an artificial reef is going to be created in Southern Thailand... using old garbage trucks. Not quite as exciting as Florida's Oriskany aircraft carrier...

Here's a snip from the article:

Nearly 200 old city garbage trucks will be dumped off the coast of Pattani and Narathiwat provinces later this month, where they will become artificial reefs. The unwanted trucks will contribute to Her Majesty the Queen's project to help rehabilitate the marine ecology of the region.

The project follows complaints about the loss of coral and the subsequent rapid depletion of marine life along the coast due to the over-exploitation of the waters by large fishing boats.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has handed over 189 decommissioned garbage trucks.

Nipon Boonyapataro, chief adviser to the city governor, said the idea of using the old trucks came from Privy Councillor Plakorn Suwannarat, who formerly supervised the BMA when interior deputy permanent secretary. It had royal approval.

Earlier, authorities had used concrete drainage pipes from the Highways Department and abandoned trains to create reefs.

The BMA transported the trucks to Bangkok Port, where the Office of the Royal Development Project Board arranged to ship them to the southern provinces.

The engines, tyres, fuel tanks and other components that could harm the environment would be removed. Only the bodies and chassis would be left.

''The Fishery Department confirms that the paint of the trucks need not be removed. But they will be cleaned to ensure there is no residual oil. Rust that may develop will not be a problem because shipworms will soon cover it completely,'' Mr Nipon said.

The trucks were now in Pattani and would be dumped in Pattani bay and about three kilometres offshore from Narathiwat, probably later this month.

''The problem of big fishing boats exploiting the sea will not recur there because local people will watch out and protect their local natural resources. They will never let the past be repeated,'' Mr Nipon said.

Pinsak Suraswadi, of the Coastal and Marine Resources Department, said there would be no negative impact on the marine environment.

''The trucks will be thoroughly cleaned up and disinfected before they are placed in the sea,'' he said.

There was a lot of talk a couple of years ago about a decommissioned Thai Navy ship being sunk off Koh Tao to create an artificial reef, but nothing else seems to have happened on that front. It's a real shame as Koh Tao could definitely use another major dive site.