Thai fishers step up to clear seas strangled by deadly ghost nets.

A Samut Prakan fisherman organising his nets after a night at sea. 

Photo: Ewen Mcleish/Coconuts

It was really wonderful to get to write this story for Coconuts. To research the piece, I visited the Ko Tor fishing community (less than an hour from Bangkok) and met the inspirational and hard working Khun Pen. 

Her story intertwines with that of the sea, an ever-diminishing bounty blamed not only on climate change but also practices closer to home – industrial pollution, poorly designed nets, harmful abandoned gear – and innovative attempts to address them.

Originally, the aim of my trip was to find out about the 'Net Free Seas' fishing net recycling project, but Khun Pen told me how things had changed dramatically in her 3 decades at sea.  She's witnessed dolphins, crab, mackerel and others fall in numbers since she first went fishing. This seemed like a greater story.

I decided to document Khun Pen's view of the decline and how it effected her, and by implication similar artisanal fisher folk throughout Thailand. At the same time, her recognition that abandoned fishing nets floating aimlessly at sea are a problem she can do something about is a source of hope. 

I'm grateful to Rahul Mehrotra, a post-doctoral researcher at Chulalongkorn University and program director at the gulf-based Aow Thai Marine Ecology Center who explained the problems caused by discarded fishing gear and how researchers have little idea about the extent of the damage. 

This black tipped-reef shark died trapped in an abandoned net at Shark Bay on Koh Tao 

Photo: Kirsty Magson

"The Environmental Justice Foundation's Net Free Seas Project aims to connect small-scale fishing communities with recyclers, creating a supply chain that turns discarded fishing nets into homeware products for sale to consumers,” project coordinator Salisa Traipipitsiriwat told me. 

Khun Pen is heavily involved in the project purchasing the used and damaged nets from fellow fishers and selling them on to Cirplas Tech, the recycling company. After cleaning and processing, the resulting pellets are turned into lifestyle and homeware items by Qualy Design. 

Duanpen Jaengpracham, aka Khun Pen, stands with used fishing nets ready for recycling. 

Photo: Ewen Mcleish / Coconuts

I was pleased to be able to interview and include Thosaphol Suppametheekulwat who owns both Qualy Design and Cirplas Tech.  This ensured the article painted a picture of the whole project. 

Carver table lamps made from recycled fishing nets by Qualy Design

Photo: Qualy Design

Thanks go to Salisa Traipipitsiriwat for arranging my trip to the fishing community, introducing me to Khun Pen and helping with translation for the article. 

Please click here to read the full story.