An avid diver, Thanda Ko Gyi of Myanmar Ocean Project has led her team in removing nearly 2,000kg of ghost gear from the reefs in the Myeik Archipelago
It was during a dive trip in 2017 that Thanda Ko Gyi discovered the problem of ghost fishing nets—nets which are lost, discarded or abandoned in the ocean.
“I had been diving in these areas for a long time, and after a while, I got desensitised [to these nets],” she says. “But on one dive trip, we were hoping to find bamboo sharks. Instead, we found them all covered by a big piece of net. They had recently been caught and were dying. We tried to free [the sharks], but none of them looked like they’d survive.”
When she went back to the site ten months later, the net had still not been removed. “It was my ‘aha’ moment,” says the founder of Myanmar Ocean Project, the country’s first non-profit ocean conservation organisation.
The Myanmar Ocean Project started as a programme to survey and clear ghost fishing nets. It has since evolved with the help and input of local fishing communities (Photo: Myanmar Ocean Project)
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Myanmar Ocean Project started as a grassroots effort. “In Myanmar, we don’t have protected marine areas. So, we took it upon ourselves to gather some volunteers. We found somebody to donate costs for the fuel and we did the cleanup [for the ghost fishing nets]. Along the way, we realised the problem was too big and it couldn’t be a one-off cleanup. I got someone to write an online article, which got the attention of the US-based organisation called Global Ghost Gear Initiative. I met them and they said they’d support me if I wanted to expand the work. It snowballed from there.”
In the beginning, she says, there was a tendency to blame the fishermen in the community for the ocean pollution. “I would ask myself, ‘Why aren’t they thinking of the future? Aren’t they worried it’s going to ruin their livelihood?’”
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But she soon realised she was asking the wrong questions. Ko Gyi explains, “The fishing industry is not ideal. People are overworked, underpaid and struggling. There is no waste management in place in major towns, let alone on these island communities or on fishing boats. Even if they did want to do the right thing, they had no means to do so.
“So when people tell me, ‘You need to educate the fishermen in the community’, I say, ‘You need to listen to them and work with them’. Because I think we should educate and raise awareness, especially among city people who benefit from this industry but don’t pay the price.”
Another challenge was the lack of data available about marine conservation in Myanmar. Despite its teeming marine life and beautiful water spots, it’s rarely seen as a diving destination. This means that there are no protected areas or support for marine conversation.
What started as an initiative to clean the ocean from ghost fishing nets has since evolved into a greater community endeavour. Below, Ko Gyi shares more about her work and what it takes to create change.
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