Ngui, founder of Moken Ocean Guardians, diving. Image ©Thomas Cristofoletti. Retrieved from news.mongabay.com
Ngui slips beneath the waves, his movements effortless and precise. He’s done this thousands of times, diving deep to find fish and crustaceans hiding beneath the coral shelves of the Andaman Sea. His catch today is different. A sheet of black plastic, snagged on a rock 50 kilometers (30 miles) from mainland Thailand. Ngui is Moken, a nomadic seafaring people who once spent most of their lives at sea; all they needed could be harvested from the sea and scattered islands. But in a rapidly changing world, the Moken have been forced to adapt their way of life. Fishing restrictions, dwindling fish stocks and the rise of tourism have pushed most to settle on land, their movement and activities limited within the boundaries of the Mu Ko Surin National Park.
Determined to carve his own path, Ngui helped form the Moken Ocean Guardians in 2022. An initiative that sought to gain revenue from an unlikely source, the plastic that floats in with the tide and litters the beaches and reefs around the Surin Islands. The collected plastic is sent to Bangkok where it’s turned into material, like yarn or pellets, for manufacturing. For Ngui and other Moken, collecting plastic not only provides an essential income and protects the environment they once relied on, it also allows them to maintain their connection to the sea and pass their knowledge to the next generation.