Aquanauts Pattaya Internships at Dive 2009 at NEC Birmingham Oct. 24-25

For the fourth year in a row, Aquanauts Dive Career Development Centre, Pattaya, Thailand's only British-owned PADI 5-Star Career Development Center, will be exhibiting at the largest dive show in the United Kingdom. Dive 2009 will be held at the NEC in Birmingham, England Oct. 24-25.

Aquanauts founding partner and Course Director Roger Smith and Internship Director Bob James will be joined by many of Aquanauts' intern graduates at Booth 606 at the front of the hall between doors 9 and 10 at the NEC. The show runs from 9:30 a.m. - 6 p.m. Saturday and 9:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Aquanauts will also be hosting two, 30-minute seminars on how to change your life with an Aquanauts Thailand internship at noon each day. There you can learn more about each internship, the center and query Smith and James about details.

Aquanauts is Central Thailand's leader in professional dive internships, boasting the region's highest pass rate and operating the dive industry's only full-time job placement agency, Jobs4Divers. You can learn more about the internships at Aquanauts dedicated professional training website at http://www.divinginstructortraining.com/.

Pattaya Cracks Down on Illegal Fishing in Dive Areas

Thailand continues to show its resolve to protect the marine environment in Pattaya. After years of over fishing and rampant pollution, the area is slowly coming back to life and officials seem intent to keeping it that way, as evidenced by today's story in the Pattaya Mail newspaper.

Six fishing boats illegally trawling the shallow waters of Pattaya’s Far Islands were netted themselves by marine patrol officers for taking fish in bulk from protected areas popular with scuba divers.

Department of Marine and Coastal Resources officers patrolling near Koh Man Wichai Sept. 17 seized the Panitwaree, Panitwaree 7, Panit 2 and Panit 18 and arrested their two Thai captains and 16 Burmese crewmembers. Later that day authorities arrested the captain and crew of the Rungtaweesap 9 and Rungtaweesap 10 also using double trawling nets off Koh Pai.

All the vessels came out of Samut Prakan Sept. 15. The captains claimed they didn’t realize fishing trawlers were not allowed in the islands administered by the Royal Thai Navy and used daily by Pattaya dive shops.

Kritayot Chamnanchang, operations chief for Marine and Coastal Resources Ship 204, said the Ministry of Agriculture barred bag- and push-trawl fishing in the Far Islands from Sept. 1 to Feb. 28 each year after years of heavy fishing that nearly wiped out the fish population. Through conservation and the sinking of the HTMS Khram off Koh Pai in 2003, numbers have returned allowing divers to again enjoy fish watching.

The seasonal prohibition also extends to beam trawling, push nets, Chinese purse seines, anchovy purse seines, luring purse seines, King mackerel encirclement gill nets, bamboo steak traps and shrimp trawl bags of all kinds. Patrols are stepped up this time of year as poaching is prevalent.

Boat captains were sent to the inquiry officer at the Pattaya Police Station for legal processing. As for the alien workers, the captains stated that they all had work permits, a claim that immigration officers will investigate.

Pattaya Mail Newspaper on Aquanauts' Latest Instructors

The Pattaya Mail newspaper again highlighted Aquanauts and its Diving Instructor Training internship progam in its latest issue. You can download a PDF of the story or read it online.

A 25-year-old British business consultant is now a professional scuba diving instructor, the latest of the many foreign students who’ve decided to change their lives and careers through an internship at Aquanauts Dive Centre.

Alexandra Booth, 25, sailed through her three-month course to easily pass her Professional Association of Diving Instructors examination Sept. 6 at Pattaya’s Discovery Beach Hotel.

The Hampshire, England resident has gone home for a few weeks with plans to return to advance her instructor qualifications this winter.

While Booth found the exam much easier than two other students who did the Instructor Development Course with her, she said it was still challenging.

“People forget about the studying,” Booth said. “You don’t just get to come here and go diving… unfortunately!”

With a keen mind and a medical background, Booth excelled on the academics, however.

“Thanks to Aquanauts, I felt really well prepared for the exam,” she said.

This month’s instructor development cycle also saw Stefan Thomi, who became an Open Water Scuba Instructor in May, complete his IDC Staff Instructor course, the third run on the PADI instructor ladder. He’s now off to the Maldives to begin working.

Aquanauts, a PADI 5-Star Career Development Center located on Soi 6 near Beach Road, hosts students from around the world through their unique 2-6 month internship program which offers private accommodations, new equipment, unlimited diving plus all courses, materials, fees and job placement. For more information see the Aquanauts professional-training website at DivingInstructorTraining.com.

Aquanauts Adds Another Woman to PADI Instructor Ranks; Maintains 100% Pass Rate

A 25-year-old British business consultant is now a professional scuba diving instructor, the latest of the many foreign students who’ve decided to change their lives and careers through an internship at Aquanauts Dive Centre.

Alexandra Booth, 25, sailed through her three-month course to easily pass her PADI Instructor Examination Sept. 6. The Hampshire, England resident has gone home for a few weeks with plans to return to advance her instructor qualifications this winter.

While Booth found the exam much easier than two other students did the Instructor Development Course with her, she said it was still challenging.“People forget about the studying,” Booth said. “You don’t just get to come here and go diving… unfortunately!”
With a keen mind and a medical background, Booth excelled on the academics, however, “Thanks to Aquanauts, I felt really well prepared for the exam,” she said.

This month’s instructor development cycle also saw Stefan Thomi, who became an Open Water Scuba Instructor in May, complete his IDC Staff Instructor course, the third run on the PADI instructor ladder. He’s now off to the Maldives to begin working.

Aquanauts, a PADI 5-Star Career Development Center, hosts students from around the world through its unique 2-6 month internship program which offers private accommodations, new equipment, unlimited diving plus all courses, materials, fees and job placement. For more information see the Aquanauts professional-training website at DivingInstructorTraining.com.

This month's IDC was staffed by Course Director Roger M. Smith, Master Instructor Gary Tytler and IDC Staff Instructor Sally Rathbone. See the website for photos from the I.E.

Aquanauts' Actions Get Pattaya Officials to Promise New Buoy, Patrols for Kood Shipwreck

City officials are promising better patrols and a new buoy for one of Pattaya’s most-popular scuba diving sites after markers anchored by the city and local dive operators to locate an undersea shipwreck repeatedly have gone missing.

The HTMS Kood, a World War II-era landing craft intentionally sunk off nearby Koh Sak in 2006, has become a thriving artificial reef. But divers keen to do wreck diving without long commutes to Koh Phai or Samae San increasingly have been frustrated by the disappearance of buoys marking its location 31 meters below the surface.

Gary Tytler, director and master instructor with Aquanauts Dive Centre, a PADI 5-Star Career Development Center on Soi 6, said the original buoy installed by the city went missing long ago and that subsequent markers installed by Aquanauts and other dive shops continually disappear, some just a day after being installed.

Dive operators are convinced fishermen and others are stealing many of the expensive markers and, as a result, now use plastic water or fuel containers. But even those are disappearing.

While dive operators can use Global Positioning System headings to find the general vicinity of the ship, the margin of error in GPS readings – combined with Koh Sak’s often minimal visibility – really requires buoys to pinpoint its exact location. They’re also a safety feature that allows divers to reach and ascend from the wreck safely and warn water craft to keep away.

Tytler said Aquanauts, which takes an active role in marine conservation, would like to install a proper buoy attached to a plastic-sheathed steel line that can withstand storms and strong currents. But the company is not going to make such an investment if the line is taken to sell for scrap the next day, he said.

“The city sunk the wreck to attract tourists but marine police don’t patrol it enough to protect the wreck and its divers,” Tytler said.

Responding to Aquanauts’ complaint, Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh said marine officials were dispatched to inspect the wreck and found that buoy was indeed missing.

Ronakit disagreed that the marker had been stolen, however, as he believes it is was too heavy and that the legal penalty imposed upon those found using would be too severe.

The deputy mayor pledged to immediately determine how much a new buoy will cost then replace it. At the same time, he said, marine police would begin checking the Kood monthly to be sure it had a proper marker.

Dive operators were pleased the city finally took notice of the problem, but said monthly patrols are not enough. Police should sweep by Koh Sak daily, especially after dark, to make sure fishermen are not working the protected artificial reef and damage buoys and lines with their propellers.

(Article by Bob James with reporting by Sawittree Namwiwatsuk and Pramote Channgam)