Welcome to Big Blue Conservation
Big Blue Conservation, Koh Tao, Thailand
Act Locally. Think Globally.
Clean Up's, Fundraising, Coral Conservation, Eco Education and so much more.
Artificial Reefs
Monitoring Programmes
Beach and Underwater Clean ups
Eco Internships
Introducing our own in house Marine Biologists
Dr. Jennifer Matthews

Eco Jen is at present a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology in Sydney. She is Doctor of Philosophy in Marine Biology having graduated from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand and was included on the Dean’s List for Academic Excellence for her doctoral thesis. She has a Masters of Research in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation from Imperial College in London, UK and wrote a thesis on integrating ecological criteria into coral nursery site selection for optimal reef resilience and restoration on Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand.
Rachel Linarts

Rachel has a BSc Honours degree in Marine and Freshwater Biology from the University of Hull in the UK. She's worked with the British Marine Mammal Life Rescue Strandings and Rehabilitation and did her thesis on trout spawning in North East river systems affected by agricultural damming, and water extraction with her research being added to the regulations and assessments for the UK Environment Agency. She now works as an environmental consultant here on Koh Tao for mooring projects, clean up events and charity events.
Rachel Parry

Rachel has a Post-Graduate Certificate in Sustainable Management and a Masters Degree in Environment and Sustainability from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. She has worked as a Science and Community Officer for Global Vision International (GVI) in Mexico, a Project Co-ordinator in Costa Rica (also for GVI), an Outreach and Education Manager for the Whale Shark and Oceanic Research Centre (WSORC), and a Marine Educator for Ocean Life Education in Brisbane Australia.
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Blog Posts
Ocean Utopia
Visit at Ocean Utopia by Val on the seashore of Koh Tao (Thailand) this week. The visibility in the water was not too good but it actually reinforced the magic of the artwork. Since the feat of its installation in March 2016, its evolution is amazing. The three structures are today entirely covered with shells and small algae. The coral shoots, slowly but surely, colonise their entire surface as...
Volunteer in Koh Tao
Big Blue Conservation is dedicated to protecting the astonishing abundance of life on Koh Tao’s reefs, as well as contributing to global research studying the impact of climate change on this beautiful environment. Through numerous projects and initiatives, we work closely with the local community to sustain our local economy and protect our island from the impact of tourism. By choosing Big...
The BIG and the small.
The biggest fish in the sea is as long as a school bus, weighs as much as 50,000 pounds, and has a mouth that looks, head-on, wide enough to suck down a small car.The largest photographed Whaleshark is beleived to be 18 meter from nose to tail as photographed here, and the smallest was just 30 cm caught in a fishing net in the Philipines. Despite this distinctive profile, scientists know very...
Riddle me this!
Here's a fun little scuba myth! The next time you think you are having a bad day remember this: Fire authorities in California found a corpse stuck up a tree in a burned out section of forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The deceased male was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with SCUBA tanks on his back, flippers, and face mask. A post-mortem revealed that the person...
Fluoro Diving on Night Dives
Night diving isn't everyone’s cup of tea, but this could be about to change. A new way to see the underwater world is emerging. ‘Fluoro Diving’ is where the standard white light torch is swapped for a powerful ‘Ultra Violet’ torch. You also need an additional visor for your mask which helps filter the intense blue light and emphasise the coral fluorescence. The affect is astonishing, resembling...
Whalesharks in schools!!!
Whale sharks are often thought to be solitary behemoths that live and feed in the open ocean. Scientists however, have found that whale sharks can be gregarious and amass in the hundreds to feed in coastal waters. Aggregations, or schools, of whale sharks have been witnessed in the past, ranging from several individual sharks to a few dozen. However this new research, which involved both surface...
Seahorse at White Rock
Wonderful to come across a Seahorse at White Rock! Seahorses, otherwise known as Hippocampus, Latin for horse sea monster, are small bony segmented fish that have a distinctive head and neck shaped like that of a horse. They are most commonly found in shallow waters, clinging to seagrasses or other marine plants. Described as the slowest fish, they struggle to avoid predation and affects by...
Manta on Koh Tao???
The Manta has got to be one of the most breathtaking creatures on the planet to dive with. The manta ray is a real bucket-list item for all divers all around the world. Once commonly seen here on Koh Tao, there hadn’t been a confirmed sighting of a manta for a very long time but over the last 10 years or so they do seem to be getting witnessed a lot more especially over the last couple of years...
Fighting Plastic!
Anyone who’s spent time in Thailand will be familiar or perhaps even have an intimate relationship with everyone’s favourite convenience store, the all-conquering 7/11. Having supplies of the ubiquitous cheese and ham toasties 24 hours a day, every single day of the year is certainly not to be sniffed at by most Thailand backpackers, who seem to be fueled almost entirely on a concoction of...
The Juvenile Batfish
Young batfish are known to camouflage themselves within their environment to avoid being detected by predators. For example, juvenile orbiculate (Platax orbicularis) and tiera batfish (P. tiera) mimic leafs floating near the ocean's surface. Juveniles are often found drifting along with floating clumps of algae (e.g., Sargassum) and miscellaneous debris, sometimes a long way from coastal...
The Nemo Circle at Twins
I would be exagerating if I were to say that a debate is currently raging about a circle of stones on one of Koh Tao's dive sites. But the question has been asked as to why it is there. To summarise, dive site Twins, to the West of the Island of Nang yuan is a fantastic place to see all manner of marine life. Just off the main pinnacle to the South is what we call the "nemo circle". There used...
The lovable Octopus.......
If you think your heart wasn’t big enough to include everyone you love, then why not be an octopus they have 3 of them…… The octopus is a soft-bodied, eight limbed mollusc part of the order Octopoda. There are approximately 300 species of octopus around the world. They are grouped within the class cephalopoda which also includes squid, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. They have a bilaterally...
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