RANONG, 28 July 2014 – Officials in Ranong province are planning to bring down dangerous fish nets that are very harmful to sea animals.
The Marine Resources Conservation Center along with national park officials and the Ranong provincial authorities are dismantling fishing nets along the mangrove forests. These nets are deemed very dangerous to sea animals and various teams of officials including 50 provincial authority volunteers have boarded 3 long-tailed boats and 2 speed boats to remove 15 of the nets covering an area of 8 rai. This illegal action has prevented local fisherman to catch fish for a living.
The harmed area is a main source of food for animals. The fishing nets placed here is considered to cause the most destruction among all other types of nets. Even small fish would not be able to swim through the nets.
These nets were sneakily placed along the island during night time when tide is low and would be invisible to the naked eye during high tides, but once tide is low, the animals that came into the area to feed on the rich food source, would immediately become trapped in the net.
Damage has been estimated at about one million baht per day. Tearing down the nets would take approximately 2 days.
