Scientists utilise technology to heal damaged ecosystems, writes Wassayos Ngamkham

Volunteers from ARRI and Thai Union Group staff help remove abandoned fishing gear washed ashore and accumulated among coastal rocks at Chaloklum beach on Koh Phangan, Surat Thani. Wassayos Ngamkham

When Tania Kanchanarak looks out over the turquoise waters of Koh Phangan, she sees more than a postcard-perfect paradise.

To her, the island is a home that needs healing – its marine ecosystem scarred by decades of neglect, ghost fishing nets and drifting plastic.

So the 32-year-old scientist, half-Thai and half-Swiss, decided to return to her birthplace and dedicate her life to restoring its seas – using drones and artificial intelligence.

“I grew up here. When I was a child, I used to see dolphins on the ferry from Phangan to Samui every time,” she recalls. “Now, I haven’t seen one for years.”

“Even sea turtles, once common, are gone. Recently, I heard about a turtle dying after being trapped in a discarded fishing net. It broke my heart. That was when I knew I had to do something.”

Tool for the ocean

That sense of loss became the seed for ARRI (Aerial Recon & Recovery Initiative), a marine conservation project she co-founded with a group of fellow scientists.

Combining environmental science with advanced technology, the team uses drones and AI mapping systems to locate, identify and remove “ghost gear” – abandoned or lost fishing equipment that drifts unseen beneath the waves, entangling marine life and damaging coral reefs.

Their work involves scanning the waters around Koh Phangan using drones equipped with high-resolution cameras. The captured images are processed by AI to pinpoint the exact GPS coordinates of underwater debris.

Through simulation modelling, the system predicts how ocean currents carry these nets, allowing the team to plan retrieval missions more efficiently.

“When we first started, the technology wasn’t very precise. The drones sometimes crashed into the sea because we flew too low,” Ms Tania said, laughing. “But after months of adjustments, we can now map debris locations accurately. It’s a big step forward for marine conservation using tech.”

In just four months, ARRI’s small but determined crew – mostly local youths and university volunteers – has collected more than three tonnes of waste from the Gulf of Thailand.

Building a movement

Most of ARRI’s volunteers are young islanders whose families run restaurants and beach bars.

“They’ve grown up surrounded by the ocean,” Ms Tania said. “When they dive and see the damage underwater, it becomes personal. They want to be part of the solution.”

The project’s momentum received a major boost when Thai Union Group, one of the world’s largest seafood companies, came on board as a primary sponsor. With funding and logistical support, ARRI was able to expand operations, purchase better equipment, and hire local staff.

“Thai Union was the first big company in Thailand to take this problem seriously,” Ms Tania said. “Without their support, we wouldn’t have been able to scale up this quickly.”

Corporate Partnership

Adam Brennan, Chief Sustainability and Communications Officer at Thai Union, said the partnership with ARRI represents a new model for tackling marine pollution.

“Marine plastic pollution is too large for conventional approaches,” Mr Brennan said. “By combining ARRI’s drone and AI technology with our sustainability expertise, we’re taking tangible steps to address one of the ocean’s most persistent threats.”

Ghost gear, Mr Brennan said, poses a particularly severe challenge.

“These abandoned nets can drift for years, trapping fish and turtles, destroying coral reefs and harming coastal livelihoods. Finding and removing them has always been difficult – until now.”

Under a six-month collaboration, ARRI and Thai Union are surveying 12 square kilometres of waters around Koh Phangan, a biodiversity-rich area filled with coral reefs and seagrass beds.

The goal is not only to collect debris but also to recycle retrieved materials and feed them back into a circular economy.

The partners expect to remove over 3.2 tonnes of waste by the project’s end.

From rubbish to materials

Meanwhile, a wave of local innovation is spreading across nearby islands.

On Koh Samui, a community initiative led by Panipol Apichitsakul, co-founder of the volunteer network E2C (End-to-Cycle), has found creative ways to give ghost nets new life.

Working with ARRI, the group transforms non-recyclable nets and marine debris into eco-friendly building blocks.

“Fishing nets are several times tougher than regular plastic,” Mr Panipol said. “When mixed with concrete, they make it stronger and more flexible – without needing chemical additives.”

The team produces about 100 bricks a day, using over 720kg of recovered nets and plastics. While not profit-driven, the project has built awareness among residents and inspired young islanders to see waste as a resource rather than an eyesore.

Closing the loop

Further south, in Krabi, another partner in the growing network is Seksan Udomsri, CEO of Wongpanit Krabi Co Ltd, and founder of the Second Life initiative – a project developing a fully integrated recycling system “from source to sea”.

“For years, most island waste had to be shipped to Bangkok for processing,” Mr Seksan said. “It took nearly 24 hours, cost a fortune, and left a lot of low-value plastic behind. Much of that ended up in waterways or the ocean.”

Through the Second Life project, in partnership with Thai Union, local waste management has become more sustainable. The programme works with over 20,000 families, teaching waste segregation, recycling and responsible consumption.

The system has been certified by VERA, an international standard for environmentally sound recycling.

“The heart of waste management,” Mr Seksan said, “isn’t just collecting or recycling – it’s preventing waste in the first place. If we can reduce materials like PVC that don’t decompose, we can truly cut marine waste at its source”.

Future anchored in hope

For Ms Tania, the mission is deeply personal. Each time her team hauls hundreds of kilogrammes of ghost nets from the sea, she feels a surge of pride and purpose.

“We’re not doing this for money,” she said. “We’re doing it because we want to see our home – our ocean – come back to life.”

She hopes that one day, dolphins will again swim alongside ferries bound for Samui, and that the next generation of islanders will grow up surrounded by a healthy, living sea.

“Our ultimate goal,” she said, “is for every Thai to understand what ‘ghost gear’ means – and to realise that the ocean is our shared home.”