PEAKLIFE

Awei Pila hosted international divers for the four-day initiative to retrieve abandoned fishing gear from the sea.

An alarming number of hazards are present in the deep blue waters which contributes to water pollution and affecting the sea population. Being aware of it, a team of experienced divers from around the world have launched a campaign to clear lost and disused fishing nets – known as ghost nets – from the coral reefs in Myanmar’s Mergui Archipelago.

Ghost nets, or ALDFG (abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear), include fishing nets, lines and traps which are left in the ocean and become entangled in rocks and reefs, ultimately killing fish and other marine life and suffocating coral.

Credits: Magnus Larsson

From May 8–11, the team of nine divers and five surface support crew – from as far afield as Brazil, Sweden, Lithuania and Romania – set out from Awei Pila in the heart of the archipelago. Within four days, the divers recovered, using scissors, some 300 kilograms of ALDFG from the surrounding reefs at depths of up to 25 meters.

The Awei Pila initiative follows closely on the heels of a similar ghost net clearance campaign in the Mergui Archipelago by the Myanmar Ocean Project. Plans are in place for an effort to clear more fishing gear from the sea in September or October.

Awei Pila is one of a handful of resorts or hotels in the archipelago, which only in recent years opened to tourism with a goal to create minimum impact on a pristine environment.