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| Reuters,
7 Jan 05 Fears for Andaman Island reefs, Thailand's survive By Crispian Balmer and Kamil Zaheer PHUKET, Thailand/PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters) Breathtaking coral reefs around India's Andaman and Nicobar islands may have suffered severe tsunami damage, but fears for those off Thailand have proven overblown, experts say. After the Dec 26. tsunami crashed onto shores around the Indian Ocean, it was feared the sensitive reefs off Thailand's Andaman Sea coast and islands -- a major attraction in a major tourist area -- had been annihilated. Marine scientists said the walls of water could have crushed the coral, dumped debris on the reefs and swamped them with silt that would cut off the sunlight coral needs to grow. But Niphon Phangsuwan, a coral expert at the Thai Marine Biology Department, said about only 5 percent of the reefs suffered damage. "When people saw the impact of the waves on the coast they thought that the coral would also have been destroyed, but it seems this was not the case," he said. An initial survey showed some reefs escaped unscathed. Others, including those around Phi Phi island made famous by the Hollywood film "The Beach", received more of a mauling. Scientists said that while the tsunami was up to 11 metres (36 ft) high when it roared onto Thai shores, there appeared to have been relatively little movement under the surface. "The damage was actually caused by debris washing out to sea from the land," Niphon told Reuters. Divers had found trees, televisions, suitcases and deckchairs lodged in the coral. Still, one marine scientist called on the Thai government to declare the damaged areas off-limits to help the recovery of reefs which provide homes to a vast variety of life forms and are sometimes described as the tropical rainforests of the seaworld. "We may need to close off these scattered small pockets of coral-rich seabeds for at least a year to prevent further damage," said Thon Thamrongnavasawat of Bangkok's Kasetsart University. REMOTE ARCHIPELAGO But fears are high for the reefs which ring many of the more than 550 islands in the remote Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, one of the richest coral areas in the world in terms of variety and home to about 200 species. Decomposing corpses, dead animals and trees left behind by the wall of water could have damaged reef-forming coral which grows about only half a centimetre (one-fifth of an inch) a year. "The sheer mass of the wave could have broken fragile types of corals like 'branching' and 'leafy' coral. I fear widespread damage to the coral reef," D.R.K. Sastry, the top official of the Zoological Survey of India in the islands, told Reuters. "When coral breaks, it forms rubble and the more dead coral, the more the impact," he said. "Because of the putrefying matter, micro-organisms will affect the coral and cause diseases." But for Thailand's Andaman Sea coast -- where more than 5,000 people were killed, nearly half of them foreign tourists -- there might even be a silver lining, a United Nations official said. The Thai government estimates more than 3,000 fishing boats were damaged or destroyed by the killer wave. With those boats out of commission, depleted fish stocks might be able to regroup. "The fishing here was not really sustainable at its previous levels," said Hakan Bjorkman of the U.N. Development Programme. "This disaster might give an opportunity to some fishermen to do something else and this will allow fish stocks to recover. "Now that some of these places have been completely destroyed, there is a chance to do some zoning and create some national parks," he told Reuters, referring to the hotels and resorts crumpled by the tsunami. "There is a real push here to get things back to normal as soon as possible, but it is important to do it carefully and do it right rather than to do it quickly." links Related articles on Tsunami and the environment |
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