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We Don't Trash Phuket's Seas, Say Fishermen
By Chutima Sidasathian Friday, November 5, 2010
PHUKET'S fishing fleet is upset that trawlers are being blamed for the rubbish that sweeps onto Phuket beaches in large quantities in the monsoon season.
''People who go to sea love the sea,'' said Somyos Wongbunyakul, president of the Phuket Fishery Association. ''We earn a living from the ocean. Most boats keep their garbage in bags.''
He said it was unfair to blame the huge amount of trash, washed up on Phuket beaches, on local fleets.
''We don't do it,'' Khun Somyos said. ''It's true that some nets are discarded, but that's often an issue beyond our control.''
Resorts help to destroy the island environment by freeing bad water into the sea, he said. ''We now have less fish than many years ago because of development.''
Speculation about the source of the rubbish on the beaches has intensified this year with greater piles of junk on the sand. The trash comes in vast quantities during the monsoon season, but is largely absent between November and April.
''We have about 250 boats in our association, with crews that are 90 percent Burmese,'' Khun Somyos said at the association office in Phang Nga Road, Phuket City.
''Larger boats could have 45 to 50 workers on board.'' Crews are paid a minimum of 200 baht a day, with food provided.
''Normally they will chase schools of fish anywhere along the Andaman coast,'' he said. ''They will fish in waters varying from 20 metres in depth to 100 metres.''
Small fleets will go out for a few days, but sometimes for as long as 12 days.
Fish came to the Andaman coast with the currents from other parts of the Indian Ocean.
Global warming is an increasing concern because Andaman fishermen were reliant on schools coming from other places.
There are six ports on Phuket that served as bases for fishing boats.
Out in international waters were lots of foreign boats, especially Taiwanese vessels hunting tuna, he said.
Do fishermen still raid national marine parks?
''There are some,'' Khun Somyos said. ''But if we hear about it, we will tell the marine police immediately.'' A false tsunami alert on two Phuket beaches triggers panic as tourists and residents flee. People are more sensitive to risks after an Indonesian tsunami killed hundreds.
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Comments
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There are no resorts out on Raja Noi, which is 20 miles south of Phuket. So please explain to me how all the rubbish, car tires, old torch batteries plastic containers and bottles etc get there?
Posted by
Robert
on
November 5, 2010 12:00
If the rubbish is mostly present in the Monsoon season wouldn't that mean that India is a likely suspect? And, I really wish these fisherman would stop discarding their nets. The pristine waters of 'The gulf of Carpentaria' (Australia) have many discarded nets from Asia washing up on the beaches daily. These nets are a floating wall of death for many marine animals.
Posted by
Antz Pantz
on
November 5, 2010 12:17
Editor Comment:
The fishing association was not able to chart where the floating rubbish comes from. Somebody must know.
Khun Somyos Wongbunyakul, president of the Phuket Fishery Association should explain to Phuketwan's readers and Thai authorities why all fishing boats do not have bins aboard fishing boats and why they do not bring back their trashes to port?
Personally, I never see a fishing boats using bins at Phuket fishing ports.
That is the question!!!
Posted by
Whistle-Blower
on
November 5, 2010 12:19
how about M150/RedBull glass bottles? as a diver I see those any day of the year. Should we blame the resorts for that, too???
Posted by
Adriano
on
November 5, 2010 12:53
Also, i never see a Thai fishing boat with any toilet at all but all have a handgrip at the stern of the boat.
Posted by
Whistle-Blower
on
November 5, 2010 14:31
I agree with Adriano. There is a lot of garbage on the seabed which doesn't float but sinks where dropped and at locations far offshore. A car tyre does not float 10km and then sink.
I have also never seen a tourist flying into Phuket hauling old batteries or car tyres with them, just itching to dump them to the sea.
Khun Somyos could hardly say anything else except deny everything because taking responsibility is unheard of here.
It's very easy to find out the truth though - just go to the docks and watch how many, if any fishing boats offload garbage.
Then ask Khun Somyos again where did all the garbage go when nothing is brought back onshore.
His last comment opens up a good opportunity to protect the marine parks though. We can all start to report fishing violations in Similan and Surin National parks to him since he promises to report them all to marine police
Posted by
Chris
on
November 5, 2010 14:43
It is simple, they just don't care. Look at some homes at land also, rubbish every where. Plastic bottles etc, why think they keep the ocean tidy, where everything just "disappears"? Plus a lot a foreign workers who do not care at all for this waters.
I think Khun Whistle-Blowers remarks get us to the right direction. We need the fisherboots to bring back their rubbish to the port. If they don't, fine them.
Posted by
Lena
on
November 5, 2010 15:19
The rubbish is abysmal. We have a boat and collect all we can whenever we can. Twice we have collected large garbage bags filled with dirty engine oil as well as regular trash. There needs to be some education. Just outside of Boat Lagoon the fishing village empty untold amounts of rubbish down into the canal. I have kayaked down there and taken photos. It gets dumped from the road mainly.
Posted by
Tina
on
November 5, 2010 16:50
Editor Comment:
The fishing association was not able to chart where the floating rubbish comes from. Somebody must know.
Ed-It seems from the above comments that many of your viewers know exactly the position. No doubt, given your track record in responding to such assertions you will require further "evidence"?
Your position (even if no comment/view on grounds of the above "heresay" from your readers} and your reporter's inability to ask hard questions to that fishy chap, make your website a very "light read"
I await your usual scathing put-down.
Posted by
stuart
on
November 5, 2010 19:05
Editor Comment:
My view, Stuart, having looked at plenty of rubbish on plenty of beaches, is that it doesn't all come off the local fishing fleet. The monsoon currents sweep in a lot of waste that by my reckoning, is probably pooled from other countries (and other fleets) in the region.
Send your Phuketwan subscription, and we'll even invite you along to ask your very own ''hard'' questions in person. if you can't afford the subscription, then your views have little value, particularly as you already know everything there is to know about the topic.
If that's not scathing enough, feel free to express your narrow views on life in some other way, at some other time.
In July a news report says, "Scientists recently announced the existence of a garbage patch in the Indian Ocean -- the third major collection of plastic garbage discovered in the world's oceans". http://yhoo.it/bnEBi0
Posted by
Malo-ji
on
November 5, 2010 21:22
Why we have so many trash during the low season?
Because during the monsoon from May until October the wind blows from the south-west and bring all trashes from Indonesia, Malaysia, fishing boats and commercial vessels.
From November until April, the wind blows from north-east so all trashes go back by the sea toward Indonesia.
Today we have a New Moon Day with more than 2,80m between low tide and high tide; so we may expect a lot of trash by the sea for the few days coming.
April-May and October-November periods are two periods where seafarers have to be careful about the change of wind direction as we may have large logs floating during that period and that may sink a boat.
Posted by
Whistle-Blower
on
November 6, 2010 08:58
Easy to blame the fisher-folk but look at the way people live all up and down the Andaman coast. Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses dump sewage and garbage into streams that go directly into the ocean.
Stop making litter, stop buying products that are " convenient".
Posted by
Media Watcher
on
November 6, 2010 10:37
The most common things I see diving the west coast beaches are M-150 bottles and fisherman's fried bags, along with fishing hook and line packaging. Not difficult to figure out that it's coming from the fishing boats.
Posted by
ScubaNinja
on
November 7, 2010 09:43
Agree with Media watcher on this one. While fishing boats are partly to blame they are not the only ones. Litter is present everywhere on Phuket, big piles of it on the side of the road next to the gutter. In the SW monsoon the rains wash the litter through streams/gutter into the ocean where the onshore winds and swells bring it back to the beach as opposed to the NE monsoon season where the prevailing winds and lack of swell push it out to international waters. The low season should be our second chance to pick our litter. Better on the beached than in the open waters, right?
Posted by
Insider
on
November 9, 2010 08:21
Phang Nga bay is full to the brim with styrofoam - it comes in a huge wave of little plastic balls and big chunks. I am pretty sure it comes from the villages like Koh Panyee because they use it to keep their fish farms floating.
Posted by
sailorgirl
on
November 9, 2010 18:46
Editor Comment:
Panyee, though, is one of the success stories: a village that realised what pollution was doing to their way of life, and adopted a ''green'' outlook. Unlikely for Panyee to be the culprits.
I think the fishing boats are a big part of the blame. I have rented several long tail boats in my day to fish. Every boat I ever rented the driver would throw his trash in the water. I would not use the boat again, I finally gave up fishing, as I could not find a driver that did not litter.
Why don't you go to the docks and observe that they don't bring any trash back to shore with them?
Posted by
chris
on
November 10, 2010 09:49
Editor Comment:
In your last post, you criticised the editor for becoming involved in spats with readers. Now you are asking a question of someone you think shouldn't offer opinions.
Your question is also a loaded question that assumes what the answer will be. Loaded questions generate conflict instead of encouraging debate.
Sailing a lot on my boat in the gulf of Thailand I see all the time rubbish on the sea .. I also sea many time fishermen using the sea as garbage throwing plastic stuff, glass bottles, etc ... It seems ecology is not their leitmotiv.
Posted by
laurentbkk
on
November 15, 2010 10:39
@laurentbkk
Leitmotif notwithstanding, if the editor says they don't do it, or are not the worst culprits, then you will just have to accept that, or take up the issue outwith this forum.
Posted by
stuart
on
November 15, 2010 11:23
Editor Comment:
You're struggling with your English today, Stuart. There appears to be an inner voice, causing confusion by saying: ''One of these days we should stop this carping and try something constructive.''
@ed
That explains a lot. If you are hearing inner voices then you may need to consider consulting a professioal.
PS - The English seems OK to me upon rereading
Posted by
stuart
on
November 15, 2010 11:49
Editor Comment:
Er, professional? Listen to that inner voice, Stuart!
@Antz Pantz
It's not difficult to determine where the trash is coming from. Most has it's origin in Thailand. I have never seen any bags or packaging originating from India. Some Chinese and Malaysian but probably imported to Thailand first. Mai Khao is the worst that I've seen and made worse by the construction workers who have regular picnics on the beach and just leave all the bags, bottles, broken shoes etc to be carried by the wind or high tides.
Posted by
Mac
on
November 15, 2010 16:36
Editor - you did not read my comment properly. The styrofoam balls DO come from Panyee village. Have you even been there? The entire village is surrounded by floating fish pens that are held up by styrofoam blocks that continually break up and float into the bay.
Posted by
sailorgirl
on
November 18, 2010 14:18
Editor Comment:
Yes, I've been to Panyee. No, I've never witnessed styrofoam blocks breaking up and floating into the bay.
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There are no resorts out on Raja Noi, which is 20 miles south of Phuket. So please explain to me how all the rubbish, car tires, old torch batteries plastic containers and bottles etc get there?
Posted by Robert on November 5, 2010 12:00