The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand joined the Royal Thai Navy to create artificial coral reefs for Sattahip Bay.
Worapot Inthong, EGAT’s assistant governor of transmission system operations, and Vice Adm. Rattana Wongsaroj, commander of Royal Thai Marine Corps, hosted the Dec. 20 activity dedicated to HM Queen Sirikit.
The reef frames were made from electrical insulator cups removed from high-voltage transmission towers. Repurposed, they will create sustainable homes for coral and fish.
The artificial reefs will be laid by Burapa and Naresuan universities, the Department of Fisheries, Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, Marine Department, and Siam Marine Rehabilitation Foundation. Together they studied how expired insulator cups, certified by Naresuan, could be used under the sea.
Cups have been used twice previously and video recorded on those reefs showed fish populations increased continually over the years.
In 2013, 100 reefs were laid off Toey Ngam Beach and in August this year another 600 cups were used off Koh Talu in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province.
