• Coral Nursery

    Coral Nursery

    Coral fragments are placed onto the nurseries before being transplanted out at a larger size.
  • EMP

    EMP

    An intern records data along one of the EMP Lines
  • Our fantastic Team

    Our fantastic Team

    Happy faces at the end of a busy and productive day
  • Mooring Line

    Mooring Line

    A newly installed mooring line to help reduce anchor damage on the reefs.
  • Reef Building

    Reef Building

    A team of conservationists and their artificial reefs after a busy day of work
  • Spawning

    Spawning

    Our favorite night of the year coral spawning, let's make some coral babies!
  • Suan Olan

    Suan Olan

    Restoration work at our favourite artificial site, Suan Olan.
  • Turtle Headstarting Program

    Turtle Headstarting Program

    The cutest member of the conservation team, one of the hawksbill turtles being weighed and measured.

Marine Conservation

Marine conservation has been at the heart of our Koh Tao dive school since it was started over 22 years ago. The New Heaven Reef Conservation Program (NHRCP) was founded at our dive school in 2007 to teach divers about coral reef ecology, research, and restoration. We believe that the people most closely connected to the reef should be the ones that care for it, and so are trying to get more and more divers involved in marine education and conservation by offering courses and certifications through Conservation Diver. Through various ongoing marine conservation projects and ocean monitoring studies we engage in the many facets of marine conservation that Thailand has to offer.

The marine conservation courses are designed to teach divers how to interact with the marine environment in a positive way, contribute to reef research, manage local reefs, and work on coral restoration or protection projects.
Reef research and monitoring is the only way to get a true idea of what the problems are and what needs to be done to alleviate them. After the problem has been identified we can start to reduce the damage with various coral restoration activities.
After finishing one of our reef conservation courses, participants will have a greater understanding of coral ecosystems and the threats to them, and learn new diving and underwater skills. The courses are broken down to accommodate those wishing to try things out for a few days, to writing a thesis or earn valuable job training over the course of 3 months.
Students of the program range from non-divers interested in learning to dive and using their new skills to ‘give something back’ to this beautiful environment, to certified divers interested in learning something new or getting involved in volunteer activities on their holiday, to university students conducting PhD and Masters degree thesis projects.

Through Conservation Diver Courses, students gain hand-on experience in coral reef ecology, research, protection, and restoration. Our courses run Monday through Friday, from 9:30 am until about 3:30pm. Generally the morning starts with a lecture and PowerPoint on the day’s topic, and then we prepare the equipment and materials for the afternoon dive. Next the team heads out to the sea to work on the day’s project, generally with one long dive of about 60-120 minutes. After the dive we spend a short time discussing the topics learned or entering the data collected.

The unique location and situation on Koh Tao provides the perfect location to learn about coral reefs and the marine environment and our school has a variety of learning options to choose from. Whether you just want to spend a day or two learning about what we do or want to spend a month actively participating in real projects or get certified as a Conservation Diver, we can accommodate you.

Course Types

Whether you are presently a diver or a non-diver and you like to be part of an effective and fun conservation project, as well as learn new skills and meet a variety of passionate conservationists from around the world take a closer look at our various programs, make a booking and jump into the sea with us.
Go to Marine Conservation

Contact us

  • Phone
    +66 (0) 77 457 045
  • Email
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  • Address
    48 Moo 3 Chalok Baan Kao
    Koh Tao, Surat Thani
    84360, Thailand

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Phone: +66 (0)77 457045 or + 66 (0)91 8324800
Address:
48 Moo 3 Chalok Baan Kao
Koh Tao, Surat Thani
84360 Thailand

Copyright 2016 - New Heaven Dive School