Myanmar’s ‘Sea Gypsies’ threatened by dynamite fishing and drugs

With a swift breath the teenage boy dives into the turquoise waters of southern Myanmar, a spear clutched in his hand, but below him lies nothing but a graveyard of broken, grey coral.

He is one of the Moken, a nomadic seafaring tribe that has perfected this free dive fishing technique over hundreds of years among the 800 islands that dot the Myeik archipelago and neighbouring southern Thailand.

Until recently the sea provided them with everything they needed: a base for boats they lived in, fish and seafood to eat and bounty such as pearls to trade with islanders for fuel and rice. But the waters have been devastated by the commercial fishing industry that has eaten away the area’s once abundant marine life.

The destruction has been wrought by fishing boats, many believed to be from neighbouring Thailand, which use dynamite and trawlers to sweep the seabed. In a cruel chain reaction, some Moken youths have ended up working for the fishing fleets that are destroying the ecosystem that supported them through the generations.

“When we were young, a husband could easily support his family,” said Kar Shar, the Moken leader in Makyone Galet village, as he smoked his pipe outside his stilted, corrugated-iron house. “Now the whole family has to work to survive, and sometimes even that is not enough.”