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Dive Info

HTMS KHRAM CLEANUP - Pattaya bay Thailand

On Wednesday 3^rd October Mermaids Dive Center boat arrived at the HTMS Khram, the shipwreck located off of the island of Koh Phai, to be informed by another dive boat that there was a large fishing net covering the wreck. As we were due to dive the wreck anyway the dive teams descended onto the wreck to examine the damage.

The Mermaids divers discovered that the net covered the majority of the wreck from the bow almost to the stern and across the entire deck, and already hundreds of dead or dying fish were trapped inside it. The Khram has become a very impressive eco-system since being sunk in February 2003 and has an abundance of soft corals and sponges and huge variety of fish living on it. It has also recently become home to one of the few turtles living in the ocean around Pattaya.

Knowing the extent of marine life on the Khram, and seeing the hundreds of already condemned fish, not to mention the extreme danger to divers through entanglement, it was decided that something had to be done as soon as possible. Once all diver teams were back on the Mermaid boat the decision was made to do a second dive on the wreck to remove the net.

During the two hour surface interval the decision was made to send 13 divers in five teams along the wreck to slowly roll the net up and untangle it from the conning tower, securing it with weight belts in the process, then a final team of three would go down to attach a lift bag to it to bring it to the surface. The divers were briefed by the instructors on board and each assigned their role for the clean up action.

Following the briefing the divers geared up in their buddy teams, each equipped with a cutting tool (knives or shears) to remove the net and release potential entanglement. The divers then descended to the wreck which is 56 metres long, 31 metres wide, and sits at 30m. The upper deck is at around 24m with the top of the tower being at 14m. Each team began the task of removing the net in their designated section, mindful that they were on restricted time due to increased air use and no-decompression limits.

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Care and attention was taken not to damage the coral and life on the wreck and slowly the net was removed and brought down to the lower deck and rolled up. A Surface Marker Buoy (SMB) was then attached to it and sent up to give it’s location to the final dive team on the surface. The rest of the divers then made their ascent to the boat with a 3 minute safety stop at 5m.

Alerted by the SMB on the surface, the final dive team descended to the wreck and secured the lift bag and, after a couple of attempts making sure that the net did not catch onto anything during it’s ascent, sent the net to the surface. Snorkelers in the water then brought the net back to the boat where it was hauled on board. Finally the guys attempted to free any life from the net that was still alive and release it back into the ocean. The extremely large and heavy net was then brought back to Mermaid’s Dive Center for disposal.

The Khram is once again a great wreck dive free from a serious potential hazard both for the marine life and divers themselves so a big thank you to all of the guys involved that day and look forward to seeing you on the next Project AWARE clean up day.

Slinky