Thai scuba divers become citizen scientists amid rising plastic pollution

Record ID: 1819116

  • Title: Thai scuba divers become citizen scientists amid rising plastic pollution
  • Date: 19th April 2024
  • Summary: PHUKET, THAILAND (RECENT - APRIL 5, 2024) (REUTERS) (MUTE) DRONE SHOT OF PHUKET TOWN PHUKET, THAILAND (RECENT - APRIL 4, 2024) (REUTERS) SLOW MOTION SHOT OF DISCARDED FISHING GEAR (GHOST GEAR) ON TABLE CORAL VARIOUS OF SLOW MOTION SHOTS OF DISCARDED FISHING GEAR ENTANGLED ON CORAL SLOW MOTION SHOT OF DISCARDED FISHING CAGE TRAPPING STAR PUFFER FISH POINT OF VIEW SHOT OF SC
  • Embargoed: 3rd May 2024 01:58
  • Keywords: ALDFG Environmental Justice Foundation Phuket Thailand animals conservation earth day environment ghost gear ghost net marine debris plastic pollution sea turtles
  • Location: PHUKET, THAILAND
  • City: PHUKET, THAILAND
  • Country: Thailand
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Pollution,Environment,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001248803042024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: VIDEO SPEED FOR SHOTS 2-4, 7-9, 32-34 AND 40 HAVE BEEN ALTERED
    Beneath the pristine waters off Thailand’s Phuket island, an environmental threat looms large as divers work to disentangle abandoned fishing gear from coral which have trapped unsuspecting fish inside.
    Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear – also known as ghost gear – are the deadliest form of marine plastic litter. This marine waste comprises ropes, nets, lines, traps and other fishing equipment often made up of durable plastics.
    An estimated 1 million tons of ghost gear are lost in the ocean each year, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Over time, they will break down into microplastics, contributing to marine plastic pollution, impacting marine creatures and humans through seafood ingestion.
    While there are several scuba diving groups working to remove ghost gear from reefs through clean-up missions, there is no system put in place to track the collection of the plastic litter, according to Salisa Traipipitsiriwat, Senior Campaigner and Southeast Asian Plastic Manager from the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).
    “Some people collect waste and take it to the landfill. Some people collect and weigh it, or count pieces, but there is still no standard for collecting data from this waste," she said.
    The non-governmental organisation is helping to coordinate lessons that teach recreational divers – a fast-growing scuba hobby group which has over 80,000 certified divers – how to use scientific tools to help marine scientists.
    Off the shore of Phuket on an April morning, nine year-old Wolawalan Thirawittayanon stood out from a group of twenty amateur divers as she penned down notes intently on her clipboard.
    “If we collected waste (underwater), we would be able to separate and identify what type of waste it is,” said Wolawalan, a certified scuba diver hoping to make a positive impact on marine life as she attended the two-day citizen scientist training run by Aow Thai Marine Ecology Center (ATMEC).
    The collected data -- which is shared with other environmental organisations -- is used to determine the extent of the ghost gear at a particular location and its environmental impact on the area, and could prove crucial in implementing policy and legislation in the future.
    Since kicking off its Marine Science Citizen Initiative (MARsCI) programme in 2020, ATMEC has trained over 100 divers to become citizen scientists and have collected enough data to publish an academic paper about the threat of ghost gear in Thai waters.
    Apart from the citizen science project, the EJF has also engaged the help of around 500 local fishers to collect discarded fishing nets. Some 130 tons of used fishing gears have been collected by the EJF from local fishing communities along the Thai coastal area and recycled into new products. The collected trash is also sorted out before being sent to recycling facilities or landfills.
    As of 2023, the percentage of endangered marine animals affected by plastic pollution in the Thai Upper Andaman Sea rose by roughly 30-40%, up from 20% in 2021, according to the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources.
    (Production: Napat Wesshasartar)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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