The Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation based in the north of Phuket had it’s 4th annual release of 100 turtles on the 29th of March this year. Scuba Cat decided to support this by sponsoring a release of a turtle back into the Andaman Sea. The important annual event is organized to raise funds for and awareness of the plight of Phuket’s critically endangered sea turtles and is supported by the Phuket Marine Biological Center and the Royal Thai Navy, the event sees the release of rehabilitated green turtles back into the Andaman Sea.

Sarah Kench, the GM and Course Director, Kath Ridley the tour leader of Scuba Adventure and Debbie Woods The Customer Service manager all went along to support the event held on the beach at Mai Khao, along with Jade, Debbie’s 1 year old daughter.

There were activities such as batik painting and turtle awareness going on throughout the afternoon along with light refreshments and a monks blessing for the new to be released green turtles.

After waiting to queuing in a busy registration Scuba Cat were allocated number 73 for release, this was a 10 month old green turtle, Sarah was the one elected to release it.

After some training we were called to beach in groups of 5, this allowed the turtles enough space to comfortably be released without big crowds around them which could cause stress. They were taken from holding tanks to the water edge and set free, the waves then helped them out to sea.

Phuket’s sea turtles face multiple threats and their numbers have severely depleted in recent years. Commercial fishing kills thousands of them every year. Many more die from eating or becoming trapped in plastic debris littering the ocean, not to mention entanglement in fishing nets and being hit by speedboats.

Every 2,500 baht raised pays for the rehabilitation of one turtle and its release back into the Andaman Sea. The work done by the Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation (founded by JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa), the Injured Turtle Rehabilitation Program (under the Phuket Marine Biological Center) and the Turtle Hatchery Program (under the Royal Thai Navy) is possible thanks to ongoing financial support from the Phuket community.

Phuket’s sea turtles are facing multiple threats and their numbers have severely depleted in recent years. Commercial fishing kills thousands of them every year. Many more die from eating or becoming trapped in plastic debris littering the ocean.

Mai Khao beach and the northern end of the adjacent Nai Yang beach are the only beaches where turtles lay their eggs in Phuket . These two locations have a long natural deserted beach stretching more than 17km. They form part of the Sirinath National Park, which is a protected marine and coastal area.

This is a nesting area of the giant Leatherback Turtle, one of the world’s most ancient species. These turtles on average weigh 450 kg. However, the Leatherback population is fast diminishing and its status is very critical. It is the only turtle without a true protective shell, though its outer protection is leathery scale-less skin – hence its name.

The breeding season of the turtles is November to March. The females come ashore just after dusk and return to the ocean as dawn breaks. The nesting site is selected and they dig a small pit using the rear flippers where they lay between 40 and 180 eggs, they try to conceal the nest once they finished by covering it with sand. The whole process takes about 1 hour. If left to nature the hatchlings will emerge after about 60 days digging their way out of the pit , usually at night so it is cooler and run towards the sea. House lights and hotel developments along the beach can disoriented the young turtles causing them to actually crawl the wrong way going away from the sea. Some large Phuket resorts have focused their attention on ensuring that turtles stand a chance of survival in the Phuket region by making the beach area environmentally friendly to the nesting turtles.

At nesting time environment groups and the local villagers of Mai Khao work very hard to protect the eggs. They take the eggs to their hatchery, where the baby turtles are protected from the vagaries of nature as well as human exploitation. During the breeding season, the local villagers patrol the beaches at night and keep records of the eggs that have been laid.

The Mai Khao Marine Turtle Foundation was launched in 2002 and raises funds and awareness for the plight of the critically endangered giant leatherback turtles that nest in the area. It also co-ordinates with the Phuket Marine Biological Centre (PMBC).

Why would you choose an e-learning course when it could be more expensive than the standard course after paying the fee’s?

The reason is simple, for more convenience, you can complete all the classroom portion of the course at your own pace prior to arrival, so no classroom whilst on holiday. All you need is a high speed internet connection.

At the moment you can do this for the Open water, Advanced open water, Nitrox or enriched air specialty, Digital Photography, Rescue diver, Dive Master and Dive Theory. There is even the Scuba Tune up on line.

have also introduced the e-learning gift pass, you can customize this for special occasions, such as birthdays, holidays, weddings etc, as you are even able to provide a personal gift message to the recipient.

So if you are trying to think of a different present this may be the answer.

June 1st is a very special day for us at Scuba Cat Diving

Sarah Kench, Course Director and her team took over ownership of Scuba Cat Diving 5 years ago.

To help you celebrate this very special year with us we invite you to receive 10% discount on any Scuba Cat Courses, Daytrips or Liveaboards made during this month. (excluding Professional Courses and Internships)

Scuba Diving Courses

MV Scuba Fun

• Daytrips to Racha Yai, Racha Noi, King Cruiser, Shark Point, Koh Doc Mai and Anemone Reef

MV Scuba Sport

• Half Day trips available November to April

Snorkelling for the Whole Family

MV Scuba Adventure Liveaboard – starting from 2 days one night

•  Similans,Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, Richelieu Rock
• Hin Dueng, Hin Mueung, Koh Ha, Phi Phi

If you book and pay in full anytime during June 2012 you will receive 10% discount not only for this month but for the rest of the year…… plus you will receive a free Scuba Cat T-Shirt with all Courses during the month.

The future for Scuba Cat:

Vision

Scuba Cat Diving aims towards creating interaction between people and aquatic life which is fun, safe, educational and sustainable.

• Sustainable for customers means someplace they can come back to where there is a wide range of services which satisfies and/or challenges them for years.
• For the environment it means interaction with the environment in such a way that the benefits for the environment/ecology outweigh the drawbacks.

Mission

To be the best Dive Centre in Phuket through good diving practices, great instructing, increasing ecological awareness and responsible interaction with environment.

Values

Everything we do are based on the following set of values. They are not stand-alone values but all apply at the same time one way or the other.

• Good intention – What we do is not as important as why we do it
• Value for money – We have no intention to be the cheapest, only to be the best. Our prices are competitive, and represent great value for money
• Quality – Only the best is good enough
• Safety first – There are always expectations, however, we will only do what we consider to be safe
• Entertainment – We don’t just provide great courses and dive trips – we provide great experiences from the start to the end…….Fun!!!!

Come and see for yourself, we believe we are achieving our goals but dont just take our word for it see what people have said about us on Trip Adviser!

IDC Phuket Thailand March 2012

The IDC is two weeks of intense learning, it takes the skills you have and teaches you how to teach them, instills the standards that are expected of you by and prepares you for the Instructor Examination.(IE)

If Vin gave me the ability to demonstrate the pool skills then Sarah ( Course Director) and Shaun ( Master Instructor) taught me how to Teach the skills.

Confined and Open Water presentations

Rule 1 ….Never Ever Ever loose contact with your students… ok to dive master, ok to students have 1 student come to you, have the Dive Master hold the students that are left, damn I got turned, oh look one has quietly swam off and the others drowned (theoretically) and the dive master is on planet zorb…. 1

Here we go again with the 1’s if you hadn’t guessed by now 1 is a fail….

Back to class let’s do a presentation on ow confined 1…. Write it up present it… yep you guessed it 1.

Wait for Sarah and Sean to stop laughing, be told how to do it properly.

Do another get a 3.5  yaaaaaaay it worked (bout blooming time)

More Physics, more theory aced every thing with one exception….. physics;  now physics is actually a subject I like, It really isn’t complicated but I was failing and just couldn’t figure out why, as Sarah kept saying RTFQ, problem was I was reading the FIN question and totally not understanding it, ask me the question and I could tap my calculator and give you the answer no problem give me it written in form well I might as well of been reading Chinese, finally I cracked it 95%.

Class Room presentations

These turned out to be the hardest yet simplest of things to do, hardest because you have to learn how exactly to put over the information that you need to but done to a formula laid out by , once you understand what is needed it becomes easy

Standards preparation

Standards are exactly what the word means, it is the bible of what you are and are not allowed to do under rules, two books are used in this exam, Sean goes through it lots and lots by the time he’s finished if you don’t actually know the answer to a question you will know where to find it.

AI exam

I woke up in the morning the sky was blue and I knew I was going to pass which felt kind of odd because Physics still wasn’t going right but I knew that I knew the answers to any thing that was asked and that today the questions were actually going to make sense.

Went to the class room sat down got the exam, and away we went box after box to be filled in, I finished Roy my class mate was still doing his, If I failed this I would not be going to the IE it was make or break time, I got up gave my paper to Sean he asked if I was sure it was done I said yep just mark it please, and then went down stairs for a coffee.

You have to understand that going to the IE for me was a journey that could end at any moment, I could of failed my Divemaster and now I could fail the AI exam, its most definitely a one step at a time journey, I finished my coffee and Sean came down, well done mate an easy pass I had scored out of the exams 2 100%’s and physics 95% I was going to the IE.

Pressure…..

The night before the IE, I was on facebook I posted some music and a couple of comments, Big Vin posted …. “You should save your Energy for the Job in hand Ivan” the truth is that’s exactly what I was doing, trying to stop my head from making mountains out of mole hills, The IE if you let it can be a stressful time, 3 days of exams; first is the written exams on the Friday, physics, physiology, standards etc, Saturday brings pool skill circuit and your demonstration of a skill or two, Sunday is rescue and open water skills.

I was sitting on the balcony of my apartment reflecting on the journey so far and the three days that were ahead, my phone went Big Vin ….. Don’t let the others stress you out just do what you have to do good luck mate.

To say I wasn’t nervous would be a lie, but I was if not confident then hopeful, I knew that all I had to do was not be a Muppet and just do what I had been taught, as for the exams there wasn’t a question I didn’t know the answer to or couldn’t work out, I just needed to RTFQ and do it.

People get stressed about exams but this was the first exam that I wasn’t stressed about, a thought came in to my head and it stuck and everything became easy, An exam is really just a bunch of questions you already know the answer to…

Scuba Cat Diving was been based on the beach road of Patong for the past 18 years, but this year, things changed.

New Locations

A move away from the tuk tuks, tailors, massage parlours and Muay Thai advertisements (yes those of you who have already been to see us will recall “Monday Night, Monday Night……….” )to a new location inside the Kee Plaza, a fantastic hotel and shopping facility 200m off of the Beach Road. This has enabled us to have a larger retail selection, much more selection for our customers to choose from Scubapro, Aqualung and many more.

Kee Plaza

We have  kept our classrooms in Soi Watanna but opened a second shop putting retail and booking’s on the ground floor, this has allowed us to have our dive centre at both ends of Patong so is more convenient for you all. Our fun pub has moved to the roof top terrace we created this year.

Meet the team

It has been a different 6 months but things are progressing well.

Scuba Cat Diving, 5 * CDC is still under British ownership and management and they have the only female Course Director, Sarah Kench, conducting monthly IDC’s on Phuket. Along side this we are the only DDI (Disabled Diver International) Instructor Trainer Centre in Asia.

Scuba Cat has a long history of being eco aware, from laying artificial reefs, becoming the first National Geographic Centre in Phuket, bi-annual underwater clean ups and winning awards from Project AWARE. This is consolidated with our 5 year commitment to monitor reefs at a local island in conjunction with reef check trainers from China on a yearly basis as we are the only reef check centre on Phuket. Recently we won the Green Star Award, the first dive centre to achieve this on Phuket and quickly followed it up by becoming the first Dive Centre in Phuket to go 100% Aware.

Following the changes we made on the retail side of the business this year Scuba Cat has also made changes in the type diving we are offering.

As always we conduct our courses to the highest standards, with emphasis on quality rather time. IDC’s are available every month along with DSAT Tech diving up to Instructor level.

We are  running 3 Diving boats this year, all of which will have Nitrox available and limited numbers of divers on them, this will enable us to have 3 different schedules which will suit all divers and snorkelers.  Whether you are a snorkeller, brand new to diving or looking to change your life by joining us working in Paradise, no problem, we have a program to suit you and your whole family.

Daytrips to the local islands around Phuket on board MV Scuba Fun will run 3 dives per day at different locations. New for this year there will be freshly cooked meals from our own kitchen cooked by the awesome Chef from Lair Le Tong Restaurant.

Half day trips to the local reefs of Phuket on MV Scuba Sport, new for this year allowing boat diving on mornings, afternoons and night dives. Sightings on the reefs have been beyond our expectations, with things we have not seen around Phuket in many years, the most recent being a free Swimming Ribbon Eel.

Our liveaboard MV Scuba Adventure will run trips to both the North Andaman and South Andaman this season, allowing for 3, 4 or 7 day trips offering the best diving Thailand has to offer. As always she offers un-crowded conditions, by having reduced numbers on the boat and is run by our own Tour leader Kath Ridley and the best Captain and Crew on Phuket. A brand new schedule is being launched for the summer and next high season to give you even more variety.

A new IDC website created by our website designers dedicated to professional level courses and Internships will be launched very shortly.