Bandon Bay is renowned for being the biggest shellfish aquaculture industry in Thailand as the location of the bay itself located adjacent to sources of geothermal energy that provide a suitable environment for plankton to grow, and there are hydro thermal vents that release essential minerals into the water and feed all the shellfishs and other marine species. As the bay provides rich resources, most of the area 3 km away from shoreline are occupied by shellfish aquaculture.
70 percent of authorized area are occupied by cockle farms 20 percent are oyster, and only 10 percent for mussels. At Kanjanadit province, the arrangement of the farm started with oyster occupying the 1 km off shoreline then cockle from the 2km and mussel respectively. These arrangement are based on the different farming method for each species that vary by the depth of water.
In terms of the use of space, farmer constructs an observatory tower for looking after the farm. The towers are usually located at the center of the farm. This traditional intertidal settlement allows oyster to be farmed by attaching to the robe hung with the structure of the tower. This housing typology shows the possibility of inhabiting the same structure by both human and marine species. Moreover, oyster itself is the key species for maintaining intertidal ecology. Individual oyster is capable of filtering water up to 50 gallons a day, multiple oyster could form an oyster bed that can act as a buffer for storm surge, and provide habitat for many marine species.
Apart from many ecological benefit performances of oyster, the formation of the oyster habitat could be potentially benefit to building and construction material industry. According to a research on marine biological material, the adhesive material, produced by oysters in order to attach themselves to each other or any provided materials, forms an inorganic bond just like the formation of concrete, but the setting and hardening process of this material is completely done under wet condition. This discovery could be benefit to a construction of the intertidal settlement.
The site will be located 2 Km away from shoreline of Tha Thong river mouth adjacent to the main circulating channel on the south-east side of the bay in Kanjanadit province occupying the existing cockle farm. As cockle are farmed on the seabed 4m deep from the water surface without any structural tool, so its easier in order to circulate around the site, and cause no effect to the farming.
The research complex consists of 3 separate sectors.
The first one is the main research center. The entrance is located next to the circulating channel with docking area for middle scale boat that carry researchers from land.
The experiment started with oyster breeding lab, which breed the larvae which is a free-swimming phase of baby oyster. The lab is a long circulating space that provide accessibility to other programs.
After the breeding process, the lab will sent the free-swimming larvae into the out door growing farm that directly connect to the storage tanks which will pump this water full with larvae into the distributing tanks after 2 weeks for distribute the water into a small scale boat the carry the larvae for experiment in the second sectors which is the oyster habitat formation lab.
The labs are located in various locations along the bay. It takes the larvae water and distribute into various farms allowing the larvae to attach themselves to a provided material under different environmental conditions including the depth of water, salinity, density organic substance, and different base material for adhesion.
Afterwards, the boat will gather all the oysters from various farms back to the research complex. The oyster will be transported directly to the adhesive material separation tower which separate the oyster from its binding material and sent the oyster back to aquaculture farm for food production. The adhesive material is collected in the storage tanks for chemical experimentation. The material will be transported to a third sector which is a settlement construction lab for testing its ability of forming a foundational elements for intertidal settlement. The third sector are also located in various locations based on different environmental conditions for material testing.