About This Project

Koh Phangan is situated in the Surat Thani Environmental Protected Area, a region of diverse marine wildlife, close to areas of intense fishing activity. This project is providing a baseline survey of this Marine Protected Area by aerial monitoring using drones to understand the scale of abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear in this biologically important region and to gain insight into potentially affected wildlife species.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The Gulf of Thailand experiences enormous fishing pressure, particularly via gillnetting; a practice with high rates of gear loss & entanglement. Coupled with increased risk of pollution through wastewater and tourism pressure, monitoring of the coastal ecosystem is vital to improving the island's environmental sustainability. Aerial surveying of shallow coastal habitat is therefore a viable method to gather high spatial resolution information on the extent of ghost gear accumulation. Koh Phangan is an island of ~125 km², with its windward, north coast, located directly below the busiest region of fishing activity in Thailand's national waters. The deployment of rapid, low cost aerial surveys will allow us to quantify the impact of ghost gear on this island ecosystem & its wildlife.

What is the significance of this project?

Aerial surveying and identification of ghost gear has been trialled successfully in shallow coastal waters of Myanmar by our researchers, in conjunction with Global Ghost Gear Initiative. During this process, multiple types of gear were identified, as well as signs of their impact upon the benthic habitat, such as entanglement with coral. During this process, it was found that marine megafauna, such as rays, sharks & turtles could be identified and counted.

This study will be focussed on creating a dataset documenting flux in gear accumulation & marine megafauna distribution.

By gathering a baseline dataset of the state of Koh Phangan's coastline, areas of concern can be identified, with the aim of establishing a long-term monitoring program.

What are the goals of the project?

1. Collect information on and monitor the abundance of abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear along the coast of Koh Phangan;

2. Make observations of marine megafauna species presence and abundance within the aerial surveys;

3. Determine specific regions along the coast which are key ghost gear accumulation points;

4. Locate polluted terrestrial areas along the coast;

5. Develop local capacity to conduct fully independent aerial surveys by local NGO staff & stakeholders;

6. Take initial steps towards conducting a technology acceptance study for long-term drone use in marine conservation, using Melissa Schiele's methodology.