The Liquid Lense team would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused and will try to get things up and running again as soon as possible.

Photography courses are unaffected and will run as usual.

Feeding the fish is a bad idea for tourists, snorkellers, divers, the fish and the ecosystem.
It can:

1.Disrupt the ecology
Over time this activity can change the behviour of fish, as they learn to connect snorkellers, divers and boats with feeding time. Marine life maintains balanced ecological relationships by competing for habitat and food. In many cases, different species share space and alternate the use of that space by feeding at different times of day. Some species do not interact at all. This balance of behavior can be interrupted by the introduction of a free meal. Unnatural feeding overrides normal competitive relationships among species and hand-fed fish are especially vulnerable to predators. Sensations associated with feeding can override other associations, including predator avoidance and protection. Competition for the handout interferes with natural instincts and behaviors, which are essential for survival and cohabitation with other species.

2. Have Dangerous health impacts to fish
Many of the foods (hot dogs, rice, bread, pretzels, potato chips, etc ) commonly fed to fishes will result in health problems for these animals, which do not naturally encounter such substances. Fish cannot handle hard fats. Fish generally consume a wide variety of prey in order to stay healthy and survive. To obtain the necessary nutrients, fish have complex feeding cycles. Over time a fish conditioned to a free meal may actually stop or interrupt natural feeding patterns and become malnourished, stressed and can even die.

3.Be a Danger to Humans

There are increasing numbers of attacks and bites reported by fish feeders and others in the vicinity because marine life mistake the actions of divers and snorkellers for feeding, or have lost their natural wariness of humans. At popular tourist destinations where fish are commonly fed, there are often incidents of accidental biting. In 2005 there was a highly publicized incident of a moray eel in the Similans used to eating sausages from visiting divers one day mistaking a divers thumb for a sausage and biting the whole thing off!!! It is only where fish feeding is common that such unnatural behaviors occur.

4.Damages the Environment
Many fed species are predators whose feeding habits play a key role in the balance of life on coral reefs. By supplementing the diet of these fish we interrupt this natural balance. When grazers like surgeonfish—which normally feed on algae—are fed by tourists, the surgeonfish eat less algae. With a reduction of grazing activity by these fish, the algae is left to flourish and potentially smother the reefs. There is much evidence in Thailand that fish feeding is increasing the number, severity and rate of Crown of Thorns (COT) Starfish outbreaks. COTs are a coral reef predator which climb onto the reef and eat live hard coral, each destroying 6m square each a year. Normally there may be 1 COT in a 100m square, but outbreaks of 30+ in this space have been reported. Sergeant Major’s naturally feed on COT eggs, triggerfish naturally feed on young and adult COT, and even parrotfish accidentally eat young COT when grazing. So by feeding these fish we increase the number of COTs that survive to destroy the reef.

It is illegal to feed fish in National Parks around Thailand-please do not feed fish.

From The Sunday Times                                                                                        October 11, 2009

The world’s 10 best tropical beaches

You want Bounty-ad beaches, see-through seas and palm trees? And you want it all for a bargain price?

Ba Kan Tiang Beach in Ko Lanta, Thailand was voted Top Beach in Thailand & No. 9 in the World in the Travel section of the The Sunday Times on October 11th, 2009.

Voted #9: Ba Kan Tiang, Thailand

As tourism marches on, the Thai idyll is getting harder to find.

Step forward Kan Tiang, the last gasp on the Ko Lanta coast road as it dwindles away into Mu Ko Lanta National Park. There’s just one resort, Pimalai, a good dive shop that offers daily snorkelling jaunts and a collection of beach-shack bars, not so much built as washed up like flotsam on the tide. Our favourite for food is Same Same but Different, but the Aqua Bar’s seafood barbie is great, too.

Trailfinders (0845 050 5871, trailfinders.com) has a week at Pimalai Resort for £899pp, B&B, a saving of £400pp. The best of the beachside guesthouses is Baan Laanta (00 66-75 665091, baanlaanta.com), which has doubles from £66, B&B. Scubafish Diving – PADI 5 Star IDC Centre (0066 75 665 095, scuba-fish.com).

Castaways should try La Laanta (75 665066, lalaanta.com), on remote Bamboo Beach; from £53 a night for two.

To read the full article and see the other Top 10 votes – please visit Times Online.

There are 4 different dive equipment packages to choose from, each including top Mares and Suunto products. This ensures that all your equipment is reliable, comfortable, durable and stylish, the most important features to think about when buying new equipment.

The Mini Pro and Mini Deluxe Pro Packages are great sets to get started with. They include the essential core items needed when taking the exciting leap to become either a recreational diver or dive professional, saving you money in the process. In addition to this, if you decide to add any extra equipment to the set, you receive a fantastic 20% discount off each item. Who could ask for more?!

The Pro and Deluxe Pro Packages are the perfect choice for future Divemaster and IDC candidates as they include all compulsory equipment as stated in the PADI course requirements. This ensures you’re fully equipped for the course and for your future as a dive industry professional. With Mares’ range of different Mask styles and a variety of colours for both fins and masks, designing your set to suit your individual style is easy. You”ll look every inch the PADI Pro!

Find out more about our range of dive equipment packages, and if you’re interested in swopping your office for the beach, changing your meeting-room to the swimming pool and making diving with Manta Rays a regular part of your schedule – take a look at the PADI Instructor and Divemaster courses.

International Coastal Clean Up day (ICC), the largest volunteer network worldwide, fell on the 19th September this year.  In 2008, 390,881 volunteers in 102 countries collected 3,090 tons of debris from shorelines around the planet for ICC. It is now supported by Project AWARE, the Thai Department for Marine Coastal Resources, Greenfins and a multitude of local and international organisations. Out of respect for the local Muslim community, Kantiang efforts were postponed a week until the end of Ramadan and therefore took place on 26th September 2009.

This year’s activities were a resounding success and three times more people than last year turned out to join in the community spirit.

With plastic accounting for over 80% of all marine debris, our focus this year aimed to specifically highlight the need to reduce plastic bags use. With Event Sponsors funding re-useable, non-plastic baggies for every volunteer to take home, we hope to provide a practical alternative – ‘Do Something Drastic – Say No to Plastic’.

[26/09/09]: Kantiang Beach & Village Clean-Up.

In partnership with Project AWARE, Pimalai Resort & Spa and Same Same But Different Restaurant, Scubafish recruited 206 volunteers to collect debris and rubbish from the beach and Kantiang Village.

All equipment (gloves, bags, water, ice coffee, rubbish trucks) was provided along with a video briefing on safety & collection guidelines.

Three separate groups of volunteers were assigned different areas to clear, including the river, the beach and the main village street. The debris was collected and information was catalogued and recorded, (e.g. drink cans, smoking-related activities, clothing, plastics etc.) to help identify the general sources of marine and coastal debris.

All trash was then weighed on the Scubafish, home-made, balance scale, which became somewhat of a live show creating much intrigue, amusement and participation by the children. The scales were constructed from articles from around the dive shop, and compared the weight of each bin bag of collected debris to standard lead dive weights.

The work was hard, hot and dirty but astoundingly 3,528 kgs of rubbish was collected in under an hour and a half!

Results showed that, around the Kantiang Bay area, shoreline & recreational activities accounted for almost 400 cigarette butts, 720 plastic bags, 382 glass bottles, 314 beverage cans, more than 700 straws and stirrers, almost 1,000 caps and lids, more than 300 food wrappers & containers, and unpleasantly, over a hundred diapers! Rubbish left through ocean & waterway activities included almost 50 fishing nets, over 1,000 different pieces of rope, and more than 20 light bulbs/tubes.

Scubafish and Narima Diving are proud members of Greenfins Thailand, who are joint Thailand coordinators of this event, along with the DMCR (Department of Marine and Coastal Resources). It will be their responsibility to collate all the ICC data from clean-ups like these around the country for both the Ocean Conservancy and Thai government departments.

Scubafish and Narima Diving would like to say a huge thank you to the following organisations for their generous contributions and time in sponsoring this event:

Pimalai Resort & Spa, Same Same But Different, Baan Laanta Resort, Phra Nang Lanta Resort, The Narima Bungalow Resort, Eyes Lanta Lifestyle Resort, Drunken Sailor’s Cafe, Why Not Bar, and Win Jeang Surf Clothing Shop.

We would also like to thank the following organisations for their support of this event: Ko Lanta Yai District Office, Klong Hin School, Kantiang Bay View Resort, Aqua Bar, Lanta Marine Park View Resort, Shroom Bar, 9 Art Gallery, Simply Life and Drunken Tailors.

KEEP KANTIANG BEAUTIFUL & PLASTIC-FREE!

[24/09/09]: Ban Klong Hin School: Environmental Activities and Educational Presentations.

Scubafish and Narima Diving staff were very excited about spending a day back at school! Children ranging from 4-11 years were divided into 4 teams for the days activities: Pla Tao (Turtle), Pla Shallam (Shark), Pla Mook Jak (Octopus) and Pla Hoi Kong (Nautilus).

Four environmental and educational stations were set up in Ban Klong Hin School for each group to visit, with the aim of demonstrating human impact on the environment and providing the kids with responsible rubbish disposal strategies to help reduce their impact.

Station 1 ‘Trash Timeline’: A rope time-line was set up to represent the amount of time it takes for rubbish to breakdown. Markers were placed from 2 – 1000+ years and each group had to walk along the rope and place common items of rubbish, found around the Kantiang area, at the point on the timeline they thought it would be broken down. Greenfins posters were then distributed and the group then rearranged the articles into the appropriate time bracket, and identified which of the items could be recycled, here on Ko Lanta.

Station 2: ‘Living Reef’: A video presentation in Thai that included excerpts from the Project AWARE Living Reef video, the IOSEA (Indian Ocean South East Asia) Turtle Memorandum video and local underwater footage from some of the dive sites in the Lanta National Marine Park, aimed to demonstrate global coral reef environmental issues, Sea Turtle Conservation specific to our local species and responsible fishing techniques that can be adopted to help sea turtles and other marine creatures – all practises that can be easily adopted by local communities to reduce the impact of humans on our marine environment.

Station 3: ‘Plastic Perils’: We adapted a Greenfins presentation about Plastic Bags to be more accessible and fun for the children, and to be more Thailand specific, encouraging the kids to think about practical ways they could reduce their own impact on the tragic trash problem.

Station 4: ‘Sea Scenes’: Each child drew their favourite underwater creatures and reefscapes. Their amazing creations were later mounted on a seascape board and placed on display for the beach clean up.

To fuel the day’s events, Pimalai Resort & Spa and Phra Nang Lanta Resorts generously provided a yummy lunch and ice cream for all 100 students. In the afternoon, The Octopossible Band from Why Not Bar entertained one and all, performing an adaptation of a popular song (Yar Ting Kaya) used as a TV campaign in Thailand around 10 yrs ago, concerning river pollution in Bangkok. The lyrics were altered to relate to Ko Lanta, mention the sea, the fishermen and appeal more to children by mentioning arriving home from school! All the students soon joined in… “Ar ar ar – yar ting kaya, Tar wi sed hen na, Ting ka ya hai pen tee pen tang” (“No No No – Don’t throw your rubbish on the ground, Magic eyes can see what you do, Throw the rubbish in the right place, please.”)

Even a small change in thinking by the next generation, can make a huge, long term difference and disseminating this information to the kids is of vital importance and is, as we say, ‘Sanuk Maak’ (very fun!).

Did you know that over 6 million tons of debris enter the oceans and sea each year causing harm to the underwater environment and wildlife? Furthermore did you know that over 80% of all marine debris is plastic? It is estimated that 1 million plastic bags are used every single minute around the world. In Thailand alone 15% of all waste consists of plastic bags with a staggering 18,000 tons of used plastic bags being disposed of every day.

19th September 2009 is International Coastal Clean Up day (ICC). The ICC started back in 1986 with 1800 volunteers; today it is the largest volunteer network worldwide. In 2008, 390,881 volunteers in 102 countries collected 3090 tons of debris from shorelines around the planet.

Volunteers from Scubafish and Narima Diving are joining this global effort to make a difference, and have organised a series of environmental and educational events over 3 days around International Clean-Up Day 2009. However out of respect for the local community these events have been postponed until the end of Ramadan.

• Day 1: Klong Hin School: Environmental activities, Clean- up and Educational Talks.

• Day 2: Ba Kantiang Bay Clean- Up.

• Day 3: Ko Haa (Ko Lanta National Marine Park) Underwater Clean-Up, ReefWatch and AWARE Asia Pacific Fish Survey.

For International Clean Up Day 2008 Scubafish and the community around Kantiang Bay recruited 80 volunteers who cleaned almost a ton of rubbish from this shoreline. We are hoping to surpass this number and make this year more sucessful still and we need your help!

Day 1: Thursday 24th September 2009.

Environmental activities, Educational talks and clean-up at Klong Hin School.

Scubafish and the Narima Diving staff are very excited about spending a day back at school! A number of short presentations and videos about our impact on the environment (including marine debris and our overuse of plastic bags), a yummy lunch and a clean-up around the school and mosque have been organised.We all know that disseminating this information to, and a small change in thinking by the next generation, will make a huge long term difference.

Day 2: Saturday 26th September 2009.

Kantiang Bay and Beach Clean-up:

Scubafish along with the businesses and local community situated along this beautiful bay are increasingly concerned by the amount of rubbish humans generate and the impact this is making to the environment. In partnership with Project AWARE, Scubafish are recruiting volunteers to collect debris and rubbish from the beach and main street in Kantiang bay, Ko Lanta. Any equipment (gloves, bags, water) will be provided along with a safety briefing. Groups of volunteers will collect and categorise debris and record information on the items of debris collected, e.g., beverage cans, smoking-related activities, clothing, plastics, to help us identify the general sources of marine and coastal debris. Scubafish and Narima Diving are proud members of Greenfins Thailand, who are joint country coordinators along with the DMCR (Department of Marine and Coastal Resources). It will be their responsibility to collate all the ICC data from clean-ups around the country for both the Ocean Conservancy and Thai government departments.

Day 3: Sunday 27th September 2008.

Reef Monitoring, Fish Survey and Underwater Clean-up:

How can divers help? Scubafish and Narima Diving (in partnership with Greenfins Thailand and the Phuket Marine Biological Center) is bringing a simple, non-invasive coral reef monitoring method to divers who are passionate enough to make a difference. Our staff will provide a thorough briefing and short presentation on ReefWatch survey techniques, enabling us to collect valuable information to monitor the reef’s health and help us care for the reefs you visit. Volunteer divers can easily learn the method and take part in the programme recording such information as common coral types, visual percentage cover, indicator species, damage and topography of reef and track this information over time. Our staff have found this programme has opened their eyes and enhanced their diving experiences even further through focusing in on marine life other than just the huge variety of fish we all marvel over. Marine Biologists and government departments will use the data collected for these dive sites to help answer questions about the overall health and risks to Thailand’s coral reefs.

We will also be conducting an underwater clean-up at the re-nowned Ko Haa dive sites (Ko Lanta National Marine Park), again categorising this data for Greenfins to collate and send to the Ocean Conservancy (ICC) and Thai DMCR.

Scubafish will also be conducting the Project AWARE Fish ID- Asia Pacific Fish Survey. Again simple and non-invasive, this survey requires partcipants to count and monitor the abundance of 10 specific local fish species particular to our area over the course of their dives. This data is then compiled and sent in to Project AWARE for entry into their Asia Pacific fish database.

Please be aware that buoyancy and your safety remain of utmost importance and as such we would suggest you consider a buoyancy clinic or scuba review and assessment with our staff prior to this day dependent upon your experience level. Why not consider enrolling in the PADI AWARE Fish ID, Naturalist or Peak Performance Buoyancy Adventure dives or Specialty courses so that these dives count towards further certification whilst you are volunteering and having fun?

For additional details, directions, information about accomodation or to find out how you can volunteer for ongoing environmental activities, or sign up for any of our courses please contact Scubafish or Narima Diving. We look forward to seeing you!!!

Help us keep Kantiang beautiful!!!

After visiting last year, the Lonely Planet team were so impressed with Liquid Lense’s talented, professional staff and innovative range of courses that they decided to include us in the new edition’s Ko Lanta section.

And in another significant achievement, Phil also came second in the Newcomer’s Portfolio Category for this year’s BSOUP competition. The British Society of Underwater Photographers (BSOUP) is hugely respected in the world of underwater photography and has many world-famous photographers within it’s ranks.

The Liquid Lense team would like to congratulate Phil on these fantastic achievements and looks forward to many more awards in the future.