8th – Two Weeks Left
I awoke for sunrise and climbed out on the rocky point with the necessary sunrise watching supplies: a pillow, bug spray, and a camera. I watched it come up over the main Pattaya beach, and actually found the subtle morphing of blue and cream color out over the opposite ocean even more fantastic that the blazen red layers over the beach.
I watched a documentary on coral reefs, as well as the video Neil made of our diving trip, and looked through the underwater photographs he took of me diving around in the area of severe coral bleaching. Some look very good for my project. I brought a waterproof camera case and camera, but the camera was either a) left somewhere(at a restaurant) and taken or b) left on my bungalow porch to dry from a bit of sea water that got in the case and taken. I have a memory that it was b), but I hope it was a). Hopefully, I’ll be able to get some good reference underwater shots anyway, if not, I can always patch stuff together for my paintings : )
((Another fantastic lunch of fried chicken, spicy bamboo salad, sticky rice with dried garlic flakes, and raw vegetables: Three girls sat next to me, and I’m pretty sure I at as much as the three of them combined! ))
At one point today, I watched a sea eagle hunting out behind the longtails off the beach.
I met and interviewed a sailor named Brian who is here with his boat. He actually got caught in the storm on the way over. Several new things I learned from him were that one of the impacts of island development is that the developers bring in their machinery and supplies on these huge, heavy, metal barges. The barges come right up to shore and smash everything underwater in their way. I saw one on the beach yesterday, I told him. He told me, the he saw the boat, too. At one point, they had to move down the beach, so they just moved down, smashing everything along the way. There is a way to get in and out without damaging the coral, if your careful, he said. “Yeah but they don’t care” said a friend who was sitting with us “its not their island, what do they care?”
Here is an early 6 minutes in our half hour interview:
( Longtails, by the way, are the big wooden boats with a motor on a pivot at the back that everyone drives here. )
How has Lipe changed since you first visited in 2004?
… It used to be you know, the chow lay used to live on the beach, you know. But now all the resorts have bought all the beach land. So they’re kind of been pushed into the jungle, they cut, pushed into the middle of the island, and their cuttin’ the jungle, you know, and makin’ houses in there, now. So its going pretty fast now. Big changes….
What draws you to Ko Lipe?
I’ve got lots of friends here, you know. I made friends here over the years. I really like the people here, the chow lay. They’re cool.
I saw you had a big fish yesterday, do you go fishing with the Chow Lay sometimes?
Yeah yeah. I well… yesterday I was just fishin’ on y way down here. I was uh trawlin.. uh pullin the line behind my boat you know. And uh, I got out in the deeper water, the deep sea you know. An the chow lay, they don’t go out that far you know. When the weather is rough, as well, they don’t go out at all, you know. Actually three boats yesterday they went fishin in Eight Mile Rock. It’s a reef pinnacle, you know, eight miles from here. They call it Eight Mile Rock. It’s a really nice place, you can go diving there. Sometimes you see manta rays and all sorts of stuff. But uh, yeah, well yeah, some three longtail boats went fishing there yesterday before that, and then the storm came along and they tried -- they headed back to Lipe when they saw the storm comin’, but it came so quick they got caught in it. They don’t have compasses or nothing. So they ended up -- they went the wrong way. They ended up on that island points that island over there Ko Klang. They got lost in the storm and they couldn’t see, you couldn’t’ see like 200 meters. And they went over to that island. It’s dangerous, you know. They went over there and then oh fuck its Ko Klang, but they were able to hide behind the island and get some shelter. They were lucky…
…
How do the reefs here compare to other places in Thailand?
The reefs here are some of the best. Ah, around these butains these islands are good, the coral, you know. The fish no so much, but their famous for the coral. A lot of the fish have been eaten and stuff, you know, but a lot of small stuff but not a lot of big stuff anymore. You know a few years ago when I came in first and was sailing around, you’d see a lot of sail fish jumping and stuff. But I just don’t see the anymore. It seems like just in the last few years.
What do you think are the biggest contributors to the decline of the big fish?
For sure the trawlers. The trawlers you know and the pursaners you know.
The what sorry?
The pursaner, its another type of fishin boat where they, they get ah, they go along in their boat and they track the shoals, with their sonar, you know? If they uh, see the fish feeding or whatever, and then they put out a big net, when they have -- they see the fish, kind of target it, when they know where they are, they’ll drop a big net. And, keep going with the net and drop the net behind them, you know, and put a big net behind the shoal you know? And pull up the bottom like a purse. Its called a pursal net. Then they, ah, so they just take everything, you know, and that really can clean out the sea. There’s big -- there’s fleets of them. Usually you’ll not see just one of them, your see 20 or 30 of them all working in one area, and their nets are really small (he made a grid between his fingers), small size you know, so they catch everything.
The other type of the boats, the other type of the fishin they do is they pair trawling: where two trawlers drag a net behind them. It can be a big long net, you know . with weights on the bottom to hold it down you know. Between, an open net, and they’ll just steam along together. And they’re draggin’ weights on the bottom, these kind of steal rollers that just hold the net down on the bottom, on the bottom, they roll along the bottom. And they just steamroll over everything on the sea floor you know. So everything on the sea floor is destroyed you know. Whatever is down there is destroyed. And they catch everything too, you know. That too, they just clean out the sea.
How much longer do you think they’ll be able to find fish around Ko Lipe?
Ah… I dunno… its hard to say. I mean, no I mean, cause the reefs around here are still pretty healthy so they are like a nursery so there’s a lot of small fish growin’, but then they get caught younger and younger every year, you know. So the fish size is getting smaller every year. But yeah, [the Chow Lay] used to be able to catch just from the rocks here. They’d just go catch as many fish as they wanted just from the rocks there. Now they have to go to like Eight Mile Rock and places like that. Which already there’s a lot less fish there as well…
While we were talking, I couldn’t help but think about what Brian had said. As the fish declined, the Urak Lawoi started going further and further away, more often, looking for the big fish. It struck me that now, both through the Hooka Diving like Neil had talk about, and going out to far off vulnerable spots like the three longtails caught in a storm at Eight Mile Rock, overall the decrease in fish was luring (or dragging) fisherman into increasing dangerous situations.
I interviewed Marcus and Marsha, the Russian couple, over dinner.
I’m beginning to really enjoy the walk home along the beach each night: The stars, and the waves, and the tide out on my left, the dark bungalows and the jungle on my right. I’m more confident to return home a little later in the evening (8-9 pm) since the guys at Time to Chill bar can watch my light to make sure it makes it around the corner to Sanom Beech. I carry a handful of rocks to chase off dogs or other unwanted attention, but haven’t had any trouble so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment