Ao Kung gets green light for marina despite opposition

Conservationists are opposed to plans to build a new marina in a sleepy bay in Phuket. Developers believe it will reignite tourism blighted by the Covid-19 pandemic but preservationists hit back saying the project will damage the island’s coral reefs and affect marine life in the area.

A developer has targeted Ao Kung, a sleepy bay north of Phuket Island, to build a marina for luxury yachts.

Marine Department deputy director-general of the department Sompong Jirasirilert announced plans in July to build luxury marinas in six provinces along the Andaman coast to boost tourism and Phuket is one of the targeted provinces.

A private company earmarked Ao Kung for a marina a few years ago but the project was shelved because conservationists argued it would damage the bay’s biodiversity.

The bay is still home to a proud fishing community and largely untouched by tourism because of the surrounding mangrove forest and coral reefs which makes the sand and water at Ao Kung a little murky.

Pictures courtesy of Mekong Eye

Since 2016, Thailand’s National Council for Peace and Order tried to push Thailand to become the marina hub of Southeast Asia and the Marine Department was given the task of looking for suitable locations.

Ao Kung is one of the locations thought most suitable and has been mentioned before.

In 2018, a local real estate developer submitted a plan to develop a marina and sports complex for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study with Thai authorities. It was blocked by local conservation groups, who said the plan did not provide sufficient consideration to the area’s coral reefs or marine animals.

A year later two separate projects were put forward to overcome those initial conservation fears which would be less likely to destroy mangrove forests and coral reefs. The second plan was a water channel dredging project which would transportation easier for local boats.

A Marine Department public hearing on February 9 about the projects was joined by 180 Ao Kung residents who largely backed the plans as it would provide jobs and bring tourists to their area.

But there was still opposition from the Ban Ao Kung Mangrove Forest Conservation Group who fear for the ecosystem, including the colonies of Acropora pulchra that were beginning to recover from the 2019 Indian Ocean Dipole event.

An advisor to the conservation group, Pichet Pandam, said the bay’s health had vastly improved thanks to projects replanting mangroves, installing artificial reefs, and studying fauna species in the bay.

In 2022, the Phuket Marine Biological Center stated that the Ao Kung Bay coral reefs were healthy after being severely damaged in 2003.

A professor at the Science and Environment Faculty at Phuket Rajabhat University, Saisanit Pongsuwan, added that the geographical location of Ao Kung is unique and it needed to be carefully considered.

The bay is part of the bigger marine ecosystem of the world-famous Phang Nga Bay, a protected Ramsar Site which featured two James Bond movies: The Man With The Golden Gun in 1974, and Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997.

It’s part of more than 160-square-kilometres of mangrove forests of Phang Nga Bay that provide nurseries to marine life. Its water offers habitats and feeds marine creatures that move between these two bays.

Saisanit pointed out that any environmental change at Ao Kung could affect the whole food chain beyond the bay.

“We must rethink Phuket’s development in a more sustainable manner. Learning from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, diversity [of income sources] is not just desirable, but critical.

“It’s undeniable that [Phuket locals] have been able to weather through the pandemic because of the resources we have around the island. It was the last foundation we had to fall back on.”

Saisanit acknowledges that more than 90% of Phuket people are employed in the tourism industry but added more needs to be done. The tourism industry is fragile, as the pandemic and 2004 tsunami proved. It damaged the local economy and Saisanit underlined the need to develop different industries and sustainable tourism that will help the residents.

A new marina could help bridge the gap.

SOURCE: Mekong Eye