On the morning of the 1st of February the Sairee Cottage dive boat sailed out to Chumpon Pinnacle with a number of students and fun divers, only to find huge areas of the dive site covered by a fishing net. There were a large number of Fusiliers and Groupers caught up in the net, and unfortunately many of them were already dead.

Divers from many different schools across Koh Tao were working hard to cut free those fish that were still alive, and untangle as much as possible. However, you can only do so much when you are leading students and customers.

This month the Dive Masters, DMTs, and a few customers from Sairee Cottage Diving completed clean-up dives at two dive sites in Koh Tao. The shop closed (like most of the island) for November as it was low season and monsoon season. The monsoon never really came, but the winds changed and blew a lot of marine debris into some of the bays on the east side of the island. The worst affected areas were Aow Luek and Hin Gnam, so we planned an afternoon boat to go and clean them up.

What is a ghost net you ask? Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been lost or deliberately left at sea. These pose a very major problem as once left they float through ocean currents or attach themselves to underwater pinnacles where they carry on fishing unattended, here they catch far more than they were designed for including endangered species like turtles and sharks. Once in the net it restricts movement leading to starvation and in those needing to return to the surface to breath; suffocation.