A fisherman's tale of illegal fishing and seized ships. Thailand

Ranong province isn't famous for much other than the saying 'rain 8, sun 4', which reflects its wet and dry seasons. Raining on average for 8 months a year makes it the wettest province in Thailand. Fortunately, I timed my trip on the 4 dry months.

Situated slightly north of Phuket and bordering south Burma, almost every town and village is within a few kilometers of the coast. Fishing has a major role in all of these communities- piers are sign posted constantly along the main road and every market is selling fish.

At Kuraburi pier, we sat having lunch and waited for a ferry to take us out to an island. To one side we could see a constant flow of trawlers and fishermen loading and unloading their catches. To the other, a somewhat forgotten wasteland.

Feeling a little more welcome along this deserted waterfront I took a look around- much quieter than having dozens of workers yelling and shouting at each other as they threw fish around and argued over who tangled the nets!

Kuraburi Pier, Ranong. Mavic Pro

4 beached vessels caught my attention. Sat there old and wrecked, they were just missing a skull and crossbones flag! I tried to climb in to see what was left but the mud was too soft and I didn't fancy sinking knee deep.

A lone fisherman saw me wandering around and came out to watch! As I came back up, instead of telling me to leave, he told me how he had worked for some tour companies and wanted to practice some English. I quizzed him on the shipwrecks as I was curious to their history.

He explained that they had be seized about 14 years ago (just before the 2004 tsunami) by police and local authorities because they had been caught illegally fishing. He didn't explain if the illegalities were due to fishing in the wrong waters- being so close to Burma, or fishing the wrong fish at the wrong time and made no mention of over-fishing. Regardless of the reason, it was 'illegal' and the owners were charged along with the crew. Apparently only some of the people involved faced jail time- for how long, I'm not sure.

The ships were confiscated and left as a silent reminder to other fishermen.

The image above is a close up from my drone photo showing the 4 shipwrecks in the red circle.

As I walked around further, I found some of the old ships had been completely removed from the water and sat up on the land- I don't think you can even call this a dry dock.

A few of the larger ships had been taken over by vegetation, while some of the lower rooms provided living space for local families.

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