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Off the west coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea lies a group of islands known as the Similan and Surin Islands National Marine Park. Jacques Cousteau christened the region’s hallmark dive site, Richelieu Rock, on account of the red and purple soft corals that cover the stunning offshore pinnacle.

Much has changed in the decades since Cousteau’s visit. Today, the marine park is teetering on the verge of collapse with human development and resource exploitation taking their toll. As is often the case in developing nations, corruption and overfishing go hand-in-hand, with a lack of oversight causing fish populations to decline dramatically. 

It is an odd spectacle to witness a fishing fleet moored next to your dive boat inside a protected area. Once large schools of barracuda, trevally, emperor and snapper have now become only occasional sightings for divers. All of this occurs in the shadow of the devastating 2004 tsunami that paralyzed the Thai people and took an equal toll on the region’s fragile coastal ecosystems.

Each image in this story is about one of these “pressures.” Over a season, I followed along with groups of divers each day, documenting their experience, but also documenting my own. I wanted to understand why this beautiful place, which seems so beloved, is being torn apart, and to hope that we can shift what, at this point, sadly appears to be inevitable.
 

Large schools of barracuda are becoming more and more difficult to see within the sanctuary, where overfishing has caused a significant drop in overall numbers.
 

Many dive boats don’t realize the impact they have on the marine environment. Along with rabbitfish and sergeant majors, the local titan triggerfish have become habituated to discarded food waste, becoming very excited and often acting aggressively towards divers and snorkelers on the surface.
 

Large green moray eels are fixtures on the world’s tropical coral reefs, the Similan Islands included.  Unfortunately, they’ve been conditioned to accept food from divers, resulting in a local diving guide losing a finger.
 

The Similan Islands are a sanctuary for the endangered green sea turtle. One rather friendly turtle, nicknamed Oscar, has become habituated on account of being fed from the various dive boats, changing his daily feeding habits and putting him in danger of being hit by a passing boat.
 

Policing the appropriate catch limits and boundaries for the local fishing fleets is a serious issue. Here, a number of fishing boats shelter at a popular tourist island nicknamed “Sail Rock” within the main Marine Sanctuary.
 

The tsunami of 2004 had a devastating impact on the western coast of Thailand, including the Similans. Pictured at Koh Bon, where the sloping reef was ideally positioned to take the force of the rolling wave, today it resembles a graveyard, with broken acropora coral covering the western ridge.
 

A small group of indigenous sea gypsies, known locally as the “Moken,” have been allowed to settle in a few small villages inside the marine park. The fishing grounds and territory of these traditionally sea-faring fisherman have been eroded away by development. Today, many have been forced to settle and, losing most of their economic capacity, have resorted to selling trinkets to tourists.
 

The Thai squid fishing fleet is a fixture at sunset on the horizon. Most nights there are too many boats to count, other than a constant stream of lights in the distance.
 

A rare clown shrimp species has made its home inside a discarded fishing net. Human waste, especially discarded plastics, have become a serious problem within the park. Some beaches in the Surin Islands to the north are covered in plastic and rubbish of all kinds.
   

Check out more of Grant Stirton’s work on his website.