Practice of diving-fishing in Thailand 1

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tgui

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Location
France, Thailand and others
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Practice of diving-fishing in Thailand, by Guilaume Tougeron in Kung Wiman, Thailand, Monday 19 november 2007.

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I had been waiting six months for the weather to calm down and leave Kung Wiman village’s fishermen to start diving. After the rain and the wind stopped, I joined Shon’s team this Monday nineteen November two thousand seven. Shon is the captain and owner of the boat, a ten metes long “rueeyon” motor boat. Son is the diver. Wanlop and his son Ell will pull the traps, take care of the fish and the diver’s air hose.

We leave at six o’clock in the morning, the sun is rising. A few long tail boats are leaving at the same time than us from this traditionnal fishermen village. They do carry large fishing traps made of wood, rope and wire. Our boat leaves the Kung Kraben’s laguna and slowly goes to the artificial reefs dispersed in the open sea. The sea here is quite shallow: about twenty meters of sandy bottom and this until two hours by boat in the open sea. The crew is preparing the equipment: three iceboxes, a rope to pull the fishing traps, a medium pressure compressor powered with gasoline, a long air hose for the diver, a GPS and a fish sonar. Son is dressing with a long leaves torn down t-shirt and skin-tight cotton pants. His dive equipment is composed of a mask with exhalation valve, a simple weight belt made with inner tube, two fins mended with bamboo, and most of all a plastic air tube balled-up the arm. I could talk about minimalism and that’s for sure what is comforting Son when he’s looking at my scuba. He doesn’t have this complicated equipment that you need to assemble and disassemble and which heavy weight doesn’t let you work efficiently underwater. During Shon’s briefing, I learn that today they will harness thirty five of their seventy fishing traps. It’s six thirty o’clock now, they should be back at six in the afternoon. For now I surely don’t realize the huge work waiting to be done…

One hour later we arrive on the first artificial reef. Shon is using his GPS to guide his boat close to the concrete boxes that the Fisheries Office sank a few years ago. Five minutes are spent, Shon gives the signal. Son catches the end of the trap’s rope, puts the air tube in his mouth, jumps and disappears quickly in an unclear water. The fresh wind of Tibet is blowing and moulding waves. It’s a transition period between the rain season and the dry season. We wait five minutes before Son transmits a signal by the rope. Shon strives to pilot the boat in order to keep the rope and the air hose on the right side of the boat, away of the propeller. Wanlop pulls up the fishing trap, then it’s Son’s turn to come on the boat. A hole is cut in the wire. Wanlop uses a landing net to take the fish out of the trap into the iceboxes, throws unwanted fish back in the sea, closes the hole by sewing it up with a thin cord, cleans the entire wire with a metallic brush and finally rinses the trap and the deck from which a dirty brown water leaks in the sea. Wanlop says that the fishes refuses to be trapped into dirty traps, so that he has to clean all the traps before putting these back to the sea. Now it’s time to go to the next trap’s location where they will replace a trap with the clean one they have. That’s the routine, the loop they have to repeat thirty five times today in order to exploit half of their fishing traps. Shon finds his way using the GPS and keep moving for ten minutes, a typical surface interval for Son. The signal is given, the trap is thrown in the water and sinks quickly to the bottom. A few seconds later Son pulls himself along the rope. As soon as he arrives on the bottom he looks for a good place to put in the fishing trap and affix it to a concrete box. Next step: tearing off the rope and attaching it to another trap full of fish, giving the ascent signal, going up to the surface and keeping a distance with the trap to prevent the rope and the air hose to snarl. During my two first dives with Son I can’t stop stressing: the ascent rate is more than twenty meters per minute, there is no decompression stop neither safety stop, and the boat is moving only a few meters from us… Of course the dive computer is crying wolf, but did anybody mention computer diving today? Son is here to catch fish, he has thirty five traps to carry up to the boat, and there is no way we could think about decompression or dissolved nitrogen. No, here is the place for tradition, practice and physiological adaptation. And I won’t write much about his spear fishing dives he does on a twenty meters bottom for half an hour or more when he can see big fishes on the reefs. Each fish he harpoons is slipped into his air hose. It’s a surprising show: the compressed air that’s permanently leaking out of the breathing tube releases bubbles through the mouths of the slipped fishes. Generally, Son comes back to the surface a bit slower after these dives. He knows that a too fast ascent doesn’t forgive. Maybe he doesn’t know that a pure oxygen tank stored on the boat could save his life. Who could explain this to him? Isn’t there a fishing office only a kilometer away from his village? Couldn’t his own cousin teach him a safer way to dive? These questions run up against tradition. Tradition doesn’t have anything to do with an unaffordable and haughty science.

The eight divers of Kung Wiman constitute an interdependent and traditional community which’s hard work doesn’t allow bureaucrats and strangers to judge their way of life. Their fishing technique is one of the cleanest ever: their artificial reefs are dedicated environments that “produce” the caught fish. Also Shon and his friends keep only big enough eatable fishes. The other fishes are released in the sea alive on their home reef. The traps are taken down to the sand and moved on the bottom without ever harming corals. We could talk about long-lasting development, even if the label’s sticker was slow to be printed.

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Interview of two divers in the fishermen village “Kung Wiman” on 25/11/2007, by Guillaume and Phamanee Tougeron

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What are your names and how old are you?

Son speaking: My name is Son, I am 37 years old.
Thanagorn speaking: My name is Thanagorn. I am younger than him. I am 35 years old.

Where are you from? And your grand parents and your parents too. Where are they from?

Son speaking: My family and I are all from here.
Thanagorn speaking: Son and me are from here, we are cousins. His father is the oldest brother of my father. We have the same family name.

Who did teach you diving like the way you dive now?

Son speaking: I learnt by myself.
Thanagorn speaking: I learnt by myself in the river. I started before him since I was ten years old something. But I’ve been diving in the sea before Son.

When did your first dive, how old were you at that time?

Son speaking: How old I am that time? Hum… around twenty seven years old something!

Were you scared of your first dives when you were ten years old?

Son speaking: No, I was not scared.

How long have you been diving this way?

Son speaking: Since that time I continued diving, since my first dive.

About how many years until now?

Son speaking: About ten years including free diving.

What is the advantage of this way of fishing, I mean like you dive for fishing? You get more fish or what?

Son speaking: I can choose the size of the fish. For example I see the group of the fish so I choose to take only big fish.

What is the disadvantage of this way?

Son speaking: I don’t see the disadvantage. If the reef has no fish we can move to another reef right the way.

What is your average bottom depth when you dive? What’s the maximum depth?

Son speaking: Average depth is 14-15 meter. Maximum depth around 19 to 20 meters

How long do you stay underwater when you dive between 10 and 15 meters?

Son speaking: About two or three hours.

What about a depth between 15 and 20 meters?

Son speaking: Same time. It depends if we see a lot of fish. If we see more fish we stay more longer.

You mean you can stay two or three hours underwater for one day or for one dive?

Son speaking: For one dive. If we don’t see the fish we go up to the surface, but if we see the fish we will stay underwater as long as we can catch fish or until the fish is finished, then we go up to the surface.

During one day how many hours do you spend under water?

Son speaking: Three or four hours…
Thanagorn speaking: No I don’t think so I think more than that. Since eight o’clock in the morning till five PM. You think how many hours? The resting time is around two hours.

Three or four hours?

Thanagorn speaking: No no! More than that. Without including the rest time I think it’s possibly about six hours.

How do you know when you have to go up to the surface?

Thanagorn speaking:We don’t know because we can stay as long as we still have air from the tube. We have to go up to the surface in the case that we don’t have air because of a problem with the compressor.

Do you ever feel dizzy or headache if you stay for a long time like three or four hours?

Son speaking: No I do never feel anything! No effect.

Did you ever have any dive accident or did you ever have some blood coming out of your nose and your ears after going up to the surface? Did you ever feel pain in your body?

Son speaking: No I did never feel anything like this and I did never have any symptoms.

Even dizzy?

Son speaking: Yes I used to feel dizzy, because I got a cold before diving.

Did you ever have problem with the rope or the air tube?

Son speaking: Yes, some time the tube was broken or I lost it… I went up to the surface as normal. I used to have this problem three times in one day. I was 19 meters deep when the tube broke and that I went out of air. I had to go up, but nothing append to me.

During your emergency ascent did you blow bubbles or not?

Son speaking: No, I just went up as normal.

Did you notice any dive accident in your community?

Son speaking: Yes I did, my cousin. He died after a dive. He knocked out on the boat.

What is the real cause of this accident? Alcohol or illness?

Son speaking: I think the accident append because he went up to the surface too fast. He got blood coming out of his mouth and his nose. I think his lungs exploded.

What was his illness or what kind of sickness did he have?

Son speaking: He often had headache. When he was diving he had headache

What about other persons or other accidents in your community?

Son speaking: Nothing else. Only problems with broken air tubes and little headache, but only one person died.
Thanagorn speaking: For me I use pure synthetic oil only for the dive compressor, but he(Son) still uses normal oil. I have been studying with a guy who teaches diving in Chanthaburi. I know the safety stop, but they don’t know, because they did not learn as I did.

Did you told them about this? I mean the way that you learnt to make the safety stop or other safety method?

Thanagorn speaking: No, I think they are well in what they do. It depends on the professionalism of person. I am safe with myself by making safety stop, using pure synthetic oil, and I also never dive as long time as they do. In this area only seven or eight person are diving this way. In another area they still do free diving. I think it is the old fashion.

Did anybody die of dive accident in other areas?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes I knew one guy who had been diving around ten years before me. He had been diving twenty years long. He died after his dive without any symptom.

What about the cause of his death? Do you know?

Thanagorn speaking: We don’t know the cause. We only know that after he finished his dive he rested for a while on the boat, then he just died. No blood came out from his nose or his mouth too.

Are you sure no symptoms? His body did not shake or other signal?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes he just finished his dive, then took a shower and rested for a while, then he just died.

Underwater how can you communicate with the people on the boat?

Son speaking: You mean for spear fishing or taking the fish trap?

Any.

Son speaking: For spear fishing we don’t need to communicate. After catching the fish I go up to the surface by myself. When I reach the surface if I am far from the boat I just wave my hand to the one on the boat then he pulls the tube and I swim back to the boat. For taking the fish trap I just make the signal by pulling the rope then they know they have to pull the trap.

Do you have any special belief or any sacred artifact when you go fishing or go to the sea?

Son speaking: Yes we respect Mae Ya Nang (Thai people believe that this woman spirit protects the boats) and I have the sacred bracelet like this one.

Does everybody respect the same spirit?

Son speaking: Yes, we respect Mae Ya Nang and Chao Mae. Chao Mae is the spirit of the house.

How do you worship?

Son speaking: We worship one time per year, I mean we make the ceremony one time per year.

How do you compare scuba diving and the way you dive, what do you think?

Thanagorn speaking: For scuba diving we have to make the course, we have to pay the regulator and BCD. That costs a lot of money. We also have to pay the tanks and the compressor which is around 100000 thai Baht(about 3000$ US). We don’t have enough money to do this, we cannot afford this.

Is it legal to do fishing with scuba equipment?

It is not illegal. But for scuba diving we have to learn to get the license then we can pay the tank. We think that the way we do is easier and cheaper.

Do you use any filter for your compressor?

Thanagorn speaking: We have two boxes in the compressor. One box contains water that filters the dust.

How about diving like this in your community? Is it going well or do you have any problem?

Thanagorn speaking: Since we use this way of diving for spear fishing we have problems with the big fishing boats. They complained that we were catching all the big fishes, so we started to put the nets and the traps instead of spear fishing. We got complaints from the big boats only. They also accused us of using the cyanide poison to fish, but it wasn’t true. Anyway we had to stop fishing for a while.

Now you don’t have any problem? And it works well?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes it’s better than working for a salary. We have more income than if we were working for somebody.

In your community you make fishing teams then you sell the fish and share the money right?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes and there are four teams here.

How long is the fishing season? How many months per year and when does it start?

Thanagorn speaking: We start after the monsoon season, around November. We do fishing around five or six months per year.

Who do you sell your fish to? Where do you sell it?

Thanagorn speaking: They come to pick up the fish here, it’s always the same people. He(Son) sells his fish to the people from here and from Tha Mai, I sell my fish to the people of Rayong.

Where do they sell the fish? In the market or somewhere else?


Thanagorn speaking: Some in the market, but the big or expensive fishes are send to Bangkok. Grouper for exemple.

Do you involve with the police or any administration?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes I used to have one experience. They said that I was using cyanide to catch fish. They went to the sea and blocked me, water police, fishery officer and one lawyer. They checked everything but found no cyanide because we’ve never been using it. I told them to take my fish to check, but they refused. They said that there are many steps to check, and that they would have to send the fish to Bangkok. Everything append because the big fishing boats didn’t catch any big fish and just complained.

You go diving around the artificial reefs as well?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes we do.

How about the artificial and the natural reefs? Which one is the best?

Thanagorn speaking: The natural reef has more fish.

Who makes the artificial reefs?

Thanagorn speaking: The fishery office.

From Chanthaburi or where?

Thanagorn speaking: From Rayong. The office of Chanthaburi makes only research. One reef was made by Chanthaburi office, but most reefs were made by Rayong Ban Phe central office.

Do the artificial reefs belong to everybody or are they only for you or for somebody?

Thanagorn speaking: Anybody can use these reefs as long as he has a GPS and a boat.

Before they put the artificial reefs you said you used to go until Koh Chang island and Koh Kut island right?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes we used to go there for three or four nights, but now the petrol is expensive so we have stopped, but sometime we still go there.

Do you think artificial reef is a good thing?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes I think it is good, but the fishes are not big on these reefs. The natural reefs have more big fishes.

Do many people go to the natural reefs for diving and fishing?

Thanagorn speaking: No not many, because not many know how to dive same as us.

Compare with before are there more divers or not?

Thanagorn speaking: Not really. Maybe one or two more divers. Not many people know how to do this, and many stopped doing this already so there are not many divers.

Do only your children know how to dive like you?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes. Most of the other people do it for fun, not as professionals like us.

Are some fish species more common than before?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes there is more fish, but modern equipment like GPS and also the wrong way to fish like big boat’s 2 cm mesh illegal nets are bad for fish resources. If they weren’t doing this I think there would be more fish.

Are some fish species less common than before?

Thanagorn speaking: Fish like the sea bass is less common, but there’s more small fish.

Do you think that the blue spotted sting ray is more common than before or not?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes, much more, but we don’t fish it, because it is a cheap fish.

What about sharks?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes I have seen some, but small sharks, at Koh Maan island. There are much more sharks in the clear and shallow sea.

Do you think that the big boats cause a problem for the environment in the sea or not?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes, they use fishing nets with 2 cm mesh so that they catch all the small fishes, and they use the machine for pulling. For us we take what we can. They sell everything they catch, big and small fishes.

Did you hear about the mafia that uses drugs to kidnap the labor and forces them to work on the fishing boats in Indonesia?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes I heard that it’s happening in the south of Thailand.

What about the big boats here?

Thanagorn speaking: In this area the fishermen rent the big boats for fishing.

What about the big boats in Laem Sing(a local fishing seaport)?

Thanagorn speaking: They use the labor from Cambodia.

They don’t pay Thai to do this?

Thanagorn speaking: No, nobody wants because they pay very low salary. The way we do fishing we get 10000 thai baht (about 300$ US) in two days and we don’t have to worry about anything.

How much do they pay them?

Thanagorn speaking: About two or three thousand thai baht per month (60 to 90$ US a month).

How can they live with this money?

Thanagorn speaking: Most of the time they stay on the boat, they eat and sleep on the boat, and they can fish themselves to sell their fish too.

When do they sell their fish?

Thanagorn speaking: They sell their fish when they come back to mainland.

Is the salary really 3000 thai baht?

Thanagorn speaking: Yes that’s why most of the time they stay on the boat.

Do you think the big fishing boats reduce the fish resources?

Thanagorn speaking: A Iong time ago I caught fish everyday. After the big boat came I got less less fish, sometime even nothing.

Do you teach your children to do diving and fishing?

Thanagorn speaking: Not now because they are still very young, and I will leave them do what they want. Same as me: I started as carpenter, then I did television fixing, then I found this job.
 
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