The challenge
Thousands of daily visitors and boat anchors were destroying Maya Bay's coral and ecosystem.
The case
Maya Bay in Thailand, made famous by the film The Beach, was receiving thousands of visitors a day, and boat anchors had destroyed much of its coral. In 2018 Thailand's national parks department closed it entirely. Workers cleared litter, replanted coral and built a floating pier so boats no longer anchor in the bay. When it reopened in 2022, visitors were limited at any one time, swimming was banned, and the bay now closes for two months every year. Blacktip reef sharks returned and coral cover recovered. An underwater camera in the bay counted as many as 100 blacktip sharks after the closure, compared with an estimated six in 2018.
Why it worked
A full pause, followed by hard limits and new infrastructure, gave the ecosystem time to recover. It worked because one agency controls access to a single, enclosed site.
Sources
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