Local Environment
Mangrove
Sirinat
National Park, located at the extreme north west tip of Phuket - a blowsy deserted terrain at
the end of an immaculate 12km beach. Dispossessed beachcombers should like it here, their
lonely beat accredited only by the watchful sea eagle over head. There is little visible human
activity nearby. Just the occasional fishing boat confronting the tidal rush as it puts out to
sea. The narrow channel between Phuket and Phang Nga was fordable by elephant two hundred years
ago. Not now. Fast payday loan, payday loans no faxing in UK.
Step off the beach into the adjacent coastal trees, and you'll
find two overlapping ecosystems in close proximity: mangroves and beach forest. Exploring them
at Sirinat is easy. There's a signposted path along the beach forest, a visitor center, and an
innovation unique for mangroves in Thailand.
Mangrove walkway
A 800 m. wooden walkway winds through a one sq. km. mangrove
bayou surrounding the Utaphao inlet at the national park. The elevated concourse has signboards
explaining the 20 kinds of mangrove trees you see along the way.
The
creeks and channels visible from the walk-way are also brilliant breeding, spawning, nursing
and feeding grounds for a wide range of species, from mullet, groupers, shrimps, shellfish,
crabs and turtles, to monitor lizards, adept tree-climbing mangrove snakes, longtail macaque
monkeys, sea eagles, kingfishers and Brahminy kites. Park officers at Sirinat hope to see the
small clawed otter return one day. Fast cash loan - quick payday loans today.
But what to make of these mangrove trees? Think of them as
ingeniously-adapted land plants trying to colonise the sea. As frontline troops, they have to
put up with harsh conditions: salt water flooding, waterlogged soils without oxygen, decaying
vegetable matter which creates noxious gases, and shifting mud banks which dislodge root
systems. Mangrove trees are equal to the task. Dagger-like buds of the rhizophora red mangrove
are elongated to penetrate ground mud where they fall. Other fruit pods are genetically
conditioned to germinate on the branch, drop off, and then disperse by floating, opening only
when they touch fresh water or soil. xbox customer support number uk
Note also the numerous finger-like pneumatophore buds emerging
from the mire. These root tips excrete excess salt and absorb oxygen. The claw-like root
structures you see from the walkway also help stabilizes trees on shifting tidal mud. They also
keep out competing plants. To get rid of excess salt some trees like the xylocarpus granatum
have developed a flaky bark. Others purge salt into dying leaves, using them as bio trash cans.
At low tide when roots are exposed, fiddler crabs, mudskippers
and snails digest leaf particles and algal matter. At high tide the submerged roots serve as
nursery sites for young fish, prawns and crabs - and feeding areas for predators. Smaller fish
hide from larger ones amid the underwater roots, taking advantage of the murky water.
Over 200 species of ocean fish, many of them with commercial
value, use mangroves during at least part of their lifecycle. Much ocean life starts in the
mud. Kill the mangroves, and you start to kill the sea.
Traditionally, mangrove man has lived alongside this fertile
ecosystem in a relatively balanced manner throughout the Andaman. In bigger channels in Phang
Nga and Krabi, sea bass and grouper are still cultivated in floating cages. Crabs are caught in
fish-baited traps.
Medicinal Herbs
Mangroves have had a medicinal role too. One holly species was
formerly used to cure VD and impotency. A grey-leafed shrub, Brownlowia tersa, helped lumbago
sufferers. Xylocarpus granatum fruits were used to make weak wine. The nipa palm, jak, is still
used for roof thatching and cigarette wrappers.
Thailand's charcoal industry derives from mangroves. Farmers
enter the mangrove and select-cut trees to be chopped and placed in brick kilns for 27 days.
The resultant high caloric charcoal is then sold at around B5 a kilo, much of it being exported
to Singapore for worldwide distribution.
Due to selective logging by the charcoal men, mangrove stands
along the Andaman rarely exceed 15 m. in height. Left alone they would surpass 30 m.
Thailand's mangroves have declined from around 4,000 sq. km in
1961 to about 1,700 sq. km today. Logging, land reclamation, port, and road construction have
taken their toll.
By the 1980s some coastal dwellers used to say dealing in heroin
was the only way to get rich quick. Then along came prawn farming. Mangroves were torn down and
replaced with the sterile landscape of shrimp ponds. The farms used the mangrove's natural
network of tide-flushed channels to dispose waste water full of prawn excreta. The
effluent-rich water started to collapse the oxygen content in adjacent fish breeding grounds in
the mangroves. Deep sea fishermen noticed diminishing stocks.
Sirinat's elevated walkway is also unique, he says. There is no
easier way to get in amongst the mangroves anywhere in Thailand. And it's free.
Beach Forest
On the exposed north and western flank of the park, another
distinctive ecosystem prevails: beach forest. The dry beach forest here is easy to walk
through. It has plaques describing tree and shrub types. Its bird life is abundant - and
visible. The adjacent Mai Khao beach is a lonesome beauty. Ideal for beachcombers.
Beach forest density is sparse, species diversity low. This is
due to shifting sandy soils, salt particles in the air, and high evaporation loss caused by
strong winds. The Casuarina pine tree (common ironwood) does well in these conditions - along
with the hardy Tulip tree, Tropical almond, Cajeput, the Black Poum, and the Asoka.
Walking in from the beach you'll see morning glory creepers with
their lilac flowers intertwining like a net to hold down wind-blown sand. Their leaves can be
used as a poultice for jellyfish stings and as an antihistamine for allergic skin reactions.
Shrub trees like Alexandrian laurel growing a little further
inland act as a wind buffer for the pandanus screw pine behind, with its strange blistering
fruit pods. The pandanus retains water by confining evaporation loss to the tiny cuticle tips
on its sheath-like leaves.
Bird Life
Within
the two sq. kms. of beach forest Magpie robin, Common mina, Spotted dove, Asian fair bluebird,
Black naped oriole, Greater racket-tailed drongo, and several bulboo species thrive.
There are many doves and kingfishers at Sirinat. Quite a few
birds keep below 5 m. or so, utilizing the protective cover of the shrubs. They are wary of
larger predators above, like the white-bellied sea eagle.
Within the mangroves Terek sandpipers, Slaty-breasted rail,
Roseate terns, Sanderling, Bar- tailed godwits, and White-breasted water hens have been
recorded. There may be a chance to see two species unique to Andaman mangroves: the mangrove
pitta, and the brown-winged kingfisher.
Getting There
As it is located in the Northern part of the island, jeeps or
motorbikes are the best mode of transport to get there. Local buses from Ranong Rd in Phuket
town plies to Baan Chatchai, which is a 10-minute walk to the park. Alternatively, take
any off Phuket bus from town, get off immediately on the Phang Nga side, and walk back across
the old Sarasin Bridge.
After visiting Sirinat, try the seafood and som tham salads at
the stalls nearby on Mai Khao beach.
