Koh Tao’s First Ever Reef Check Training of Trainers

By Reef Check EcoDiver Course Director Nathan Cook

In the week leading up to Christmas, Thailand’s island of Koh Tao & Crystal Dive played host to its first Reef Check Training of Trainers program.

We were joined by Reef Check scientist Suchana “Apple” Chavanich for some of the classroom sessions. It was great having Apple present for part of the course to answer some of the more in-depth questions and provide further information on the role of Reef Check in Thailand and worldwide.

During the course, the participants undertook detailed classroom lectures on organism ID and their roles in the ecosystem before diving on local reefs. During the dives, new instructors were given the reins to manage and coordinate the relevant surveys to confirm they would be capable of handling this role in the future. We also threw some potential problems at students to check their proficiency in addressing and correcting problems. cpr training

On the final afternoon we headed to a local dive site, Twins, where our new instructors took control of a full Reef Check survey which has since been submitted to Reef Check Headquarters for inclusion in the worldwide database.

Congratulations to participants in the course including Crystal Dive instructors Nicolas Hebrant & Liran Barkan, Chad Scott of Marine Conservation Koh Tao and Hariharan Lyyappan from India.