Thailand plots sustainable comeback for DiCaprio beach

Mass tourism had brought the archipelago, immortalised in Leonardo DiCaprio movie"The Beach", to the brink of ecological catastrophe.

Marine biologists are trying to repopulate the reefs after years of damage caused by uncontrolled visitor numbersFive small brown-banded bamboo sharks are set free, their striped bodies and long tails flickering through the water. Until it was closed, Maya Bay's dazzling beauty and Hollywood fame drew up to 6,000 people a day to its narrow 250-metre long beach.

As for the corals,"more than 40 percent of the fragments replanted in Maya Bay have survived, a very satisfactory figure obtained thanks to the absence of visitors". Boats will no longer be allowed to moor near the beach and will instead drop tourists off at a jetty away from the cove. Tours will be limited to one hour, with a maximum of 300 people per tour.

"We didn't just come to dive in the turquoise water. We also want to help," says Franck, a visitor who has just arrived from Paris.Local businesses face the challenge of adapting to the new model. For some, the change is welcome.

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