View Full Version : SamilaBeach-Songkhla:ArtificialReef?
Admin place the following picture on the frontpage:-
The Surya Nawa 5 aground on Samilla Beach in Songkhla - December 23, 2005
http://www.2bangkok.com/images/Surya-Nawa-5.jpg
I guess we may eventually receive a fuller report on this incident. It looks to me like one of the barges used by the oil & gas exploration companies that work out of Songkhla.
This is not the first time in recent memory that a ship has been washed up by a storm on Samila Beach. In the mid-90s, a freighter was washed up near the Khao Seng Naval facilities. It stayed there for some years; and I believe was 'squatted' by refugees. It was later 'broken up' in situ.
The curve of the coast at this point (one of very few along this coast) must act as a natural trap. I have just been informed that the name 'Khao Seng' may itself refer to a historical shipwreck from which a large amount of booty was extracted. 'Khao Seng' might be more accurately as /Gao-Seng/ - 900, 000; although my informant suggests the name indicates a 'large haul' rather than a precise figure.
>This is not the first time in recent memory that a ship has been washed up by a storm on Samila Beach. In the mid-90s, a freighter was washed up near the Khao Seng Naval facilities. It stayed there for some years; and I believe was 'squatted' by refugees. It was later 'broken up' in situ.
i'm pretty sure i posted a photo of this older wreck on 2B, but now i can't find it...
Just returned from a quick drive-past of Samila Beach. It looks awful! Such a shame, as in recent years the city authorities had tidied it up somewhat. The sea is a great deal higher up the beach than I've ever seen it, and huge lengths of the shoreline have been sandbagged to prevent even further erosion and loss of casuarina trees. (Locals say that back in the sixties it was quite a wide beach.) Not to mention washed-out sections of road & pavement. They certainly need to learn more about drainage. (The barge appears to have gone; although it's possible I was looking in the wrong area.)
Fact is that beaches north & south of the city have been experiencing this problem for some years, but this is a dramatic leap of degradation. There is almost certainly a global-warming element in all this (although I appreciate the fact that we don't know it's exact mechanisms), as similar erosion is apparent all over the Gulf of Thailand area. Certainly there have been those who have pointed their finger at the detrimental effects of Songkhla Port construction on this whole coastal area.
One wonders how long it will be before someone decides this whole coast needs an ugly, but lucrative, breakwater:-
http://bkkok.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=435
Southern coastline facing severe erosion
What is happening in the land of smiles.SONGKHLA: -- The Gulf coastline from Surat Thani south to Songkhla is becoming severely eroded through a mixture of natural and human factors. Worst hit is Songkhla's Ban Kao Seng, where two beaches have nearly been worn away.
The Nakhon Songkhla Municipality has responded by putting 10,000 sandbags along a badly eroded part of Chalathas beach, and is urging the government to take quick action.
The Mineral Resources Department confirmed the seriousness of the erosion along 300 km of the eastern coastline of Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla and northern and eastern coast of Surat Thani.
The most seriously damaged spots include the coastline in Kanchanadit district of Surat Thani; Laem Talumphuk in Pak Phanang district and Tha Sala and Hua Sai districts of Nakhon Si Thammarat; and Kao Seng beach in Muang district and Thepha district of Songkhla.
Mineral Resources Department deputy chief Phiphop Vasuvanich said the erosion was caused naturally by tidal surges, strong waves and winds, but also by human activity such as construction blocking the natural movement of sand.
The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry appointed Thammasat University's research and consultation institute the consultant for a project to curb soil erosion on the eastern coastline in the three provinces. The project's first phase started in October last year.
Research project manager Ouruya Veesakul said the coastline has been worn away by strong waves and winds during the November-January period and by land use changes and the degradation of mangrove forest as a result of shrimp farm expansion.
A lot of sand was swept away from the coast in the Ban U-tapao-Ban Pakthae and Ban Kao Seng-Ban Thung Yai areas of Songkhla and became sand mounds in the sea, she said.
"As for Ban Thung Yai and the northern part of Ban Kao Seng, the beaches should be filled with sand and there should be follow-ups around these areas which would cost around 120 million baht,'' she said.
Ms Ouruya said the hard-hit areas were the southwestern coast of Ban Kao Seng where the remaining beach was only 4m wide, and a 250m section of the northern coast of Ban Kao Seng where seawater could reach the rim of Chalathas beach road.
There were soft and harsh solutions to the problem, she said. The soft option included landfills, the relocation of buildings, the marking of boundaries between communities and beaches, the growing of seagrass and trees with long roots on beaches, and the revitalising of mangroves.
The hard option, meant for hard-hit areas, included the construction of breakwaters and sea walls.
Nakhon Songkhla Municipality mayor Uthit Chuchuay said Chalathas beach had been eroding since 1999 as a result of changes in the direction of tropical storms.
He said the municipality has put 10,000 sandbags along the beach road and it was hoped this would curb the soil erosion until January.
If this proved successful, another 40,000 sandbags will be put along the 800m-long hard-hit section of the beach.
"I think this problem is big and requires long-term systematic solutions with the help of the central government,'' he said.
"The problem has occurred not only in Songkhla but along the whole coast from Narathiwat to Prachuap Khiri Khan, and needs to be tackled in a most comprehensive way,'' he said.
--Bangkok Post 2005-11-23
Rather like this aerial picture of Samila Beach. Looks like it was taken about ten years ago, as they were obviously rebuilding the Samila Beach Hotel when this picture was taken:-
http://images.43things.com/place/00/02/f1/192786xl.jpg
Admin place the following picture on the frontpage:
The Surya Nawa 5 aground on Samilla Beach in Songkhla - December 23, 2005
http://www.2bangkok.com/images/Surya-Nawa-5.jpg
I guess we may eventually receive a fuller report on this incident. It looks to me like one of the barges used by the oil & gas exploration companies that work out of Songkhla.
This is not the first time in recent memory that a ship has been washed up by a storm on Samila Beach. In the mid-90s, a freighter was washed up near the Khao Seng Naval facilities. It stayed there for some years; and I believe was 'squatted' by refugees. It was later 'broken up' in situ.
The curve of the coast at this point (one of very few along this coast) must act as a natural trap. I have just been informed that the name 'Khao Seng' may itself refer to a historical shipwreck from which a large amount of booty was extracted. 'Khao Seng' might be more accurately as /Gao-Seng/ - 900, 000; although my informant suggests the name indicates a 'large haul' rather than a precise figure.
Gina II run aground in Songkhla
http://www.2bangkok.com/GinaIIb.jpg
(Photo: MJL)
http://www.2bangkok.com/GinaIIa.jpg
(Photo: MJL)
More on the Gina II - December 16, 2004
MJL writes: Yes, poor Gina II. She had a somewhat unsavory history. I was in Songkhla in 1992 and the story we heard back then was this: She was registered in Panama, but where she was actually built no one seemed to know. Her name had been changed at least once (when she was washed up on the beach you could clearly see that the old name had been painted over) and was used for smuggling (once it was cashews!) to and from various ports in the Philippines, Viet Nam, Singapore, etc.
While she was anchored offshore awaiting an open berth in the Songkhla deep sea port, tropical storm Forrest blew through and because one of her anchors wasn't working very well, the strong currents pushed her nearly into shore. The authorities were worried that a sub sea fiber optic line would be torn up and so had her towed in. Because she had been involved in smuggling and the crew were all illegals--Burmese and Vietnamese--no one ever claimed ownership.
Eventually the government hired a company to salvage her and that was the sad end of our lady Gina. Word around here is that the guy who owned the salvage company made so much money on that job that he closed shop and moved off to Krabi. Update - December 8, 2005
Narit writes: At the time I lived in Songkhla and as far as I remember from what my dad told me this ship was from Panama and it had some kind of engine failure that could not be repaired. I guess it would cost them too much. So they abandoned the ship and just left Thailand somehow. Then a local company retrieved this ship for their own business. This is as much as I know.
http://www.2bangkok.com/GinaII.jpg
(Photo: 2Bangkok.com)
Gina II - December 4, 2004
2Bangkok.com's webmaster standing next to the Gina II run aground in Songkhla in 1992. Anyone have any details about this incident?
http://www.2bangkok.com/gina.shtml
Artificial reefs 'would slow down erosion'
By The Nation
Published on June 19, 2008
Artificial reefs will have to be used to slow down shoreline erosion, which is now a big threat to the country's coastal areas, an engineering lecturer says.
Worawuth Wisuthimethangkul, of Prince of Songkhla University's (PSU) Faculty of Engineering, said students were studying ways to use artificial reefs to reduce the impact of waves.
The project, supported by the Department of Mineral Resources, not only aims to solve the problem of erosion, which is occurring at an alarming rate, but also to increase nursery areas for marine life, he said.
Worawuth did not say what kind of material would be used to make the artificial reefs. But he said it must not have an adverse impact on the marine eco-system and should not create visual pollution.
He said the coastline at Samilah Beach, Songkhla, was selected for a pilot project. However, before putting the artificial reefs into the sea, public opinion about the project would be gathered.
Payom Rattanamanee, also from PSU's Faculty of Engineering, who heads the project, said about 2km of shoreline of Samilah Beach had been damaged. The rate of erosion of the beach was 1.3 metres a year.
Shorelines along both the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea were under serious threat from coastal erosion. Worawuth said more than 1,650km of coastal line in 23 provinces from Trad to Narathiwat and Ranong to Satun had been damaged by waves. The erosion rate in some areas was as high as 20 metres a year, Worawuth said.
The possibility of artificial reefs being used to control coastal erosion is just the latest idea to be studied by academics.
A few years ago, Thanawat Jarupongsakul, of Chulalongkorn University's Department of Geology, invented a breakwater comprised of boomerang-shaped concrete columns to lessen the power of the waves. The breakwater had been installed, as part of an experiment, at the small coastal village of Khun Samutchine in Samut Prakan province, which had been suffering from coastal erosion for years.
According to Thanawat, the breakwater worked very well in stabilising and rehabilitating the shoreline at the village. He will soon present the results of the World Bank-supported experiment to the public.
But Thanawat said the breakwater would only work with a muddy seashore, not sand.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/06/19/politics/politics_30075904.php
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