8° SOUTH
KOH TAO ISLAND
10° 5′ 38 ″ N , 99° 50′ 11″ O
Gulf of Thailand
FIRST THINGS FIRST
So.. I need to get this straight cause I´m a really perfectionistic human being and nothing pisses me more off than photos not turning out as wanted. But.. to boost my ego.. this time, I guess, I was limited by my equipment.
For underwater photography, I use my Nikon Coolpix AW100 which I got to.. I think it was my fifteenth birthday.
I still really like this camera and I never thought about changing the gear. The main reason, therefore, might be the insanely high prices of underwater housings, but also the memories hanging with this cam. I guess I have taken this little fucker in my heart over the years.. even tho the quality is not insane.
One of the main reasons getting tourists to buy plane tickets for a crazy amount of money to places thousands of kilometers across the earth, far away from home are probably the tempting stories about beautiful coral reefs. Fulfilled with life, colorful corals, shiny tropical fishes, turtles, and any sort of marine life you can imagine should roam around here, so the pictures on google search or stories from your friendly neighbor are promising. Turns out the truth is sadly sobering. In April 2007 20% of all coral reefs worldwide got officially declared as destroyed and a further 30% as "seriously endangered" since then nothing really changed. So it comes when you are, like me two years ago, finally the first time in southeast Asia, hella excited for colorful reefs paired with beautiful tropical fish you´ll find yourself mildly disappointed paddling around in the Indian Ocean. But to lighten the mood a bit, Bali is not the ideal place for snorkeling tours and there are still plenty of, for real, beautiful coral reefs on this planet but now is the time to act and to protect our reefs. Amir Zakeri made a really fucking good video, called "50 Minutes to Save the Earth", showcasing all the shit currently happening on our planet. He also talks about great organizations fighting for coral reefs you can support. You should absolutely watch it. But if you a student or just don't want or have money to donate a great thing you can do to help is: Don't use sunscreen! Or buy a reef save one. According to several research studies, up to 14,000 tons of sunscreen end up in the world's oceans every year. Most of them containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, two chemicals known to harm coral. So do yourself a favor, spend the extra buck on a reef safe sunscreen to still be able to gaze on the beauty of coral reef based marine life when coming back next year to the tropical island of your choice.
But enough of that let's rather talk about one of the or probably, the, most intact coral reef I ever got the pleasure to snorkel in. The reef of..
TANOTE BAY
Tanote Bay is one of the most beautiful bays on Koh Tao. Only a 15 minutes drive away from "downtown" the bay is one of the most popular beaches on the island. Fortunately, Koh Tao is a backpacker island and you will never meet a lot of people, at least compared to other popular islands and you didn't came for the beach anyways, right?
So after you went down a couple of steps to the beach, pulled out your mask and snorkel and jumped into the water, you will find yourself overwhelmed. Corals in every shape and color, tropical fish, from smaller than your little toe to as big as your arm. If you're lucky you can even see sea turtles here.
Towering over the bay there is this big rock, and when I say big I mean big. It's, I would say, about 8 meters high and you can climb it with a rope hanging from top. It´s pretty scary tho because this rock is one giant smooth boulder without any real columns or holds to hold onto or place your feet. So you have to grab this rope really fucking tight and hope your feet don't lose grip while you walk up almost vertically. But if you are brave enough you can jump the 8 meters down in the blue deep water on the other side. If you don´t want to risk breaking your leg while trying to climbing some rock and ending up in the hospital for the rest of the vacation that´s also fine, and to be honest the reef is way more interesting. Like I said it´s the best-preserved reef I ever saw and it seems the locals and even tourists do actually care about keeping it that way. But thats all you need to know. Now enjoy some pictures I took with my crappy underwater camera.
There are this big "shells"? everywhere between the corals, they get as big as a hand or even bigger. They close if you come near them and I really wanted to stick my finger in, please don't take this out of context, but I heard horror stories of divers getting stuck in these and I really didn't felt like loosing a finger that day so I didn't put my finger in.
One, I believe it´s a Parrotfish, just grabbing a quick snack from the big corrals.
This bad boys can reach up to 50 centimeters in length and are often to see in the reefs of Koh Tao
I think that's a parrotfish and one of the biggest fish around here. Also, nature is pretty cool so let's try to keep it intact. Don't be an asshole and break corals just for a souvenir, pick up your trash and just don't be fucking retarded. Don´t be the tourist everybody hates, be cool. Thank you!