In the stories society tells, fisherfolk are often portrayed as victims, villains, or sentimental figures in idyllic landscapes. Yet these narratives fail to do the most obvious thing: to ask fisherfolk to speak for themselves.
When Sirichai Arunrugstichai was still a marine biologist in Thailand, he spent time among the Urak Lawoi, Indigenous nomadic seafarers of the Andaman Sea. “The fisherfolk know many things that researchers don’t,” he says — from spawning seasons to the hidden patterns of the tides.
In The Last Catch, Arunrugstichai documents the deep relationship between fisherfolk and the bodies of water they depend on — a story of survival, knowledge, and belonging.
Among his subjects are the li: traditional wooden weirs built along the Khon Falls in Laos, designed to catch fish migrating upstream. Outlawed since 2017, they’ve been blamed for the country’s declining fish populations — a convenient scapegoat for the hydropower dams that have since displaced many people from the communities along the river.
“Li are designed to catch the fish that can’t fight against the current,” he explains. “It’s a family thing,” with each weir belonging to a single lineage, built in the same place for generations. Once seen as a relic, Arunrugstichai reframes them as ingenious ancestral technologies — sustainable, strategic, and governed by tradition.
Coexistence — this word that fills environmentalist spaces — is simply a way of life for the subsistence fisherfolk of the world, whose lives rise and fall with the waters.
Water reminds us, through its tides and currents, that we are one among many, caught, like all, in its flux.
Khon Falls, Laos
photographs by Sirachai Arunrugstichai (@shinalodon )
Thank you to the @nhm_wpy jury for recognizing this x-ray image for the Ocean category this year. It was a fun experiment, playing around with idea during some rough time. I could barely believe that this image would really make it to the WPY, being among all the great photographs that keep me inspired.
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#wpy61 #xray #biodiversity #marine #death #ecology
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Diverse anatomical forms and features of skeletons of various tropical reef fishes from the fish collection of Department of Marine Science, Chulalongkorn University as seen exposed with an X-ray imaging, Bangkok, Thailand. The image is arranged and taken to symbolise the potential destruction of marine biodiversity from various threats to the world’s oceans by highlighting the diverse anatomical forms of fishes in the coral reefs, an ecosystems that are deteriorating worldwide with increasing frequency and magnitude.
"The power of photography gradually became all the clearer to me. There are now cases where my photography has contributed to changes in policy"
Ocean Conservation (Hope) Winner Sirachai Arunrugstichai reflects on how his work helps him hold onto hope, and how each image plays a part in shifting the ocean’s future.
He’s just one of the MANY incredible photographers featured in this year’s Ocean Photographer of the Year Awards.
🖼️ See this year's winners at @sea.museum
🔗 Tap the link in our bio read this interview NOW
#photography #hopecore #uwphoto #opy2025 #oceanphotographeroftheyear #oceanphotography #shark
Sirachai Arunrugstichai (@shinalodon ) presents the skeletal beauty of a collection of tropical fish. 🐠
Sirachai was quite nervous as he was unsure if the image would turn out as he’d imagined. He wanted “to visualise the potential loss of marine biodiversity, particularly from coral reef ecosystems”. To achieve this, he took X-ray images of the specimens preserved for study at Chulalongkorn University.
Warm-water coral reefs are home to a quarter of all marine life, including more than 7,000 fish species. They’re threatened by ocean warming, ocean acidification, destructive fishing practices, pollution and coastal development.
Global efforts to protect and restore coral reefs continue.
📸 'Baring the Bones' is highly commended in #WPY61's Oceans: The Bigger Picture category.
Our Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is supported by Lead Corporate Sponsor, Nuveen (@nuveeninv ).
#WPY #WildlifePhotographerOfTheYear #WildlifePhotography #NaturePhotography #NaturalHistoryMuseum
Workers prepare ice in the hold of an industrial fishing vessel operating in the Myeik Archipelago, Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar. As more ice factories emerge in the port town of Myeik, the growing industrial fleet is able to stay at sea for longer periods. Through transshipment, smaller boats deliver fresh ice to fishing vessels offshore and return to shore carrying their catch, enabling a Workers prepare ice in the hold of an industrial fishing vessel operating in the Myeik Archipelago, Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar. As more ice factories emerge in the port town of Myeik, the growing industrial fleet is able to stay at sea for longer periods. Through transshipment, smaller boats deliver fresh ice to fishing vessels offshore and return to shore carrying their catch, enabling a near-continuous presence at sea.
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Photographed during a project along the Andaman Sea, supported by the Explorer Grant from the National Geographic Society @insidenatgeo
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#ice #fisheries #myeik #mergui #myanmar
A rotting carcass of an Ocellated eagle ray (Aetobatus ocellatus) is hanged in midwater, being entangled in a massive ghost net in the reefs near Langann Island of the Myeik Archipelago, Tanintharyi Region, Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Despite being barely explored by scientists, the Myeik Archipelago, a group of 800 islands in the Andaman Sea of Myanmar has been under intensive industrial fishing activities for quite sometimes, where a substantial amount of the catch ended up at landing sites in Thailand.
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Photographed during a project along the Andaman Sea, supported by the Explorer Grant from the National Geographic Society @insidenatgeo
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#fisheries #ghostnets #ray #overfishing #myanmar
A local villager photographs a nesting female leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) on the sand dunes of Phang Nga, along the longest continuous beach on Thailand’s western coast and the largest nesting site for the species in the eastern Andaman Sea, within Khao Lampi–Hat Thai Mueang National Park. With limited capacity to patrol such an extensive coastline, authorities have recruited local communities by offering incentives to locate and protect turtle nests along the dunes, turninb former egg poachers into partners in sea turtle conservation.
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Photographed during a two-years project (I planned for one) along the Andaman Coast of Thailand and Myanmar with support by the Explorer Grant from the National Geographic Society @insidenatgeo
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#leatherback #andaman #seaturtle #turtle #thailand
Greenthroat parrotfish and Spinefoot are seen among the floating particles of their excrement, while forming a school to feed on macroalgae on rocks in a shallow reef of Phuket, Thailand. Herbivorous grazers help prevent hard corals from being smothered by macro algae, which are often an issue in coastal areas with large development, hence their presence contribute to the resilience of the reef.
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#parrotfish #ecology #fish #reef #thailand
Small-scale fishers remove sardines from drift nets along the shoreline at night, illuminated by green fishing lights after returning from a nearshore trip in the Gulf of Thailand off Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand. Operating small boats and low-impact gear in coastal waters, small-scale fishers are especially vulnerable to degradation of the local marine ecosystem and resource declines. Across Southeast Asia, they remain central to coastal livelihoods and food security, yet are frequently underrepresented in fisheries policymaking.
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#fisheries #fishers #livelihoods #thailand #asia
(ENG below) ใครไม่ทันตอนมีนิทรรศการที่พารากอน ภาพถ่ายชุดนี้ของชิน @shinalodon ตอนนี้มอบให้สถาบันวิทยาศาสตร์ทางทะเล มหาวิทยาลัยบูรพา จัดแสดงที่อควาเรียมบางแสนตั้งแต่วันนี้ถึง 30 เมษาค่ะ วางให้กลมกลืนกับ exhibit อย่างนี้เราชอบมาก ดูมีชีวิตชีวาดี
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If you didn’t catch it at Siam Paragon previously, Shin’s photos are on displayed at Bangsaen Aquarium (Institute of Marine Science, Burapha University) until 30 Apr. I personally love it like this; invites curiosity and much livelier.
In 2017, more than 5,000 visitors a day crowded the sand at Maya Bay.
🌊 Speedboats churned the shallows.
🚤 Engines roared.
From above, the cove looked less like a national park and more like a ferry terminal.
A single aerial image went viral, and public pressure followed.
Soon after, the bay closed.
In 'Return to The Bay: The Day the Sharks Came Back' @shinalodon explores the story of when he captured the viral image of over-tourism at Maya Bay and the following crackdown that resulted in Blacktip Reef Sharks return.
Read the full story via the link in bio
📸 by @shinalodon
✏️ by @shinalondon
#Sharks #MayaBay #Thailand #SustainableTourism #MarineConservation #Oceanographic
