The National Parks Department of Thailand aims to reinforce the management of the country’s well-liked vacationer conservation areas following the return of blacktip reef sharks to Maya Bay.
Maya Bay was closed for 4 years, from 2018 to 2022, to facilitate the recovery of the island’s wildlife. The bay’s recognition surged after the discharge of the 2000 film The Beach, featuring Leonardo Di Caprio, which attracted a giant quantity of guests to the picturesque location, inadvertently damaging much of the island’s marine life.
The closure of Maya Bay helped enhance conservation efforts, but there’s a risk of it being destroyed as soon as once more. According to Reuters, up to 40 blacktip reef sharks swim within the turquoise shallows whereas roughly four,000 vacationers visit the white-sand seaside surrounded by towering cliffs daily.
The number of sharks has elevated for the reason that inflow of tour boats and vacationers caused almost every final one to go away the bay. Limited tourism resumed in 2022, but conservationists warn that shark numbers are declining once again, making it difficult for Maya Bay to strike a stability between preserving a pristine ecosystem and sustaining the livelihoods of those that depend upon tourism.
Petch Manopawitr, a marine advisor to Thailand’s National Parks Department, said…
“We don’t discuss closing down all over the place or lowering the tourism numbers, however I suppose we’re speaking about managing it correctly.”
But with the number of sharks already dwindling, authorities and conservationists are intent on keeping vacationers from swimming in the bay and driving away the infant sharks, which disguise in the shallows and coral reefs from cannibalistic adults.
Maya Bay is situated on Phi Phi Leh Island, a small limestone island lined in lush greenery, situated within the Andaman Sea off the western coast of Thailand.
Marine researcher Metavee Chuangcharoendee said that the island has turn into a nursery for young sharks as soon as again, thanks to the hiatus in tourism.
Metavee and other researchers at the Maya Shark Watch Project use underwater cameras and drones to watch the behaviour, feeding areas, and breeding patterns of sharks.
Between November 2021, once they launched a pilot study, and the top of 2022, they observed a decline in shark numbers as tourists began to return. Blacktip reef sharks, named after the black colouration on their dorsal fins and tails, roam the Andaman Sea and other tropical areas however their numbers are reducing as a end result of overfishing, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
There are several factors that influence the sharks around Phi Phi Leh Island, including seasonal movement patterns and human activities like fishing.
Double mentioned that with the shark population already declining, authorities and conservationists should forestall tourists from swimming in the bay and disturbing the infant sharks that search refuge in the shallows and coral reefs away from the predatory adults.
“We are hoping that with the restrictions in place, we will mitigate the disturbance to (the sharks). We are doing this analysis in hopes that we are able to find the best way to handle and the finest way for tourism and the setting to coexist.”