Sustainable fishery campaign and reef clean up day

 
Turtle Watch has had a busy month in December. On the 10th, we met with the Tour Operators' Initiative (TOI) which is a network including some of Europe’s biggest travel agencies. TOI works for sustainable traveling around the world. At the meeting, we presented our idea about launching a sustainable fishing campaign by creating a network of fishermen who use environmentally friendly fishing gear and guarantee the income for these fishermen. 

TOI representatives at Phuket Marine Biolocigal Center

Fish and shrimp trawling is a large problem for sea turtles and other marine animals. TED’s (Turtle Exclusion Devises) have been developed to reduce sea turtles getting caught in these trawl nets. A TED net is a grid of bars with an opening at either at the top or the bottom of the trawl net where small animals such as shrimp pass through while large animals, such as marine turtles and sharks are able to escape through the opening. Turtle excluder devices have been relatively successful in lessening sea turtle casualties as by-catch. 

Maria is giving information about the effects of plastic for marine life

The goal of our sustainable fishing campaign is to study the use of TED’s in Thailand and then go on to promote the use of these nets by guaranteeing the fishermen that their catch will be bought by restaurants and food chains. The project aim is to increase the use of TED nets in Thai waters and bring together fishermen who are ready to use, or are already using TED nets and hotels that are willing to use sea food that is caught using the technology that helps to reduce by-catch. As an outcome, marine life will have better future in Thai waters and tourists will keep on cherishing and visiting the Andaman Sea region. TOI was very positive about the idea and their role would be to help us bring together restaurants and hotels that would sell the sustainable fishery products.

On the 12th, Turtle Watch participated in a beach and reef clean up day at Mai Khao Beach. Local villagers and schools gathered together to collect rubbish from the beach and a diving team was put together to collect sunken trash from the underwater reefs. Turtle Watch took part under water where massive bags of glass bottles, cans, nets, long lines and fish hooks were collected. The entanglement in old fish nets is among the most common factors causing death of dolphins, turtles and dugongs in the area. Local school children had an environmental awareness day and their task was to create a poster about how seaturtles can be protected. There were nice prices for the best posters and maaaan was it hard to evaluate all the great pieces of master art :)!

Beautiful turtle poster maded by Mai Khao children.

Keep reading the blog and have a nice Sankta Lucia day!!!