Temporal patterns of boat activities around dugong habitat in Trang Province, Thailand

Abstract

We investigated the monthly and daily patterns of boat activities around dugong habitat in Trang Province. We interviewed local fishermen and tourism officers at five coastal villages around Muk and Talibong Islands to investigate when they operate boats. We obtained answers from 103 fishermen and 15 tourism officers. It was found that local fishermen catch crabs, squids, and fishes all the year round. Crab and squid fishing were especially active from July through November. They mostly worked in the daytime (0500h – 1800h), especially in the morning. Guided tour boats were operated in the daytime (0800h – 1700h) and only from November through April. We have also analyzed information on boat noises provided by underwater sound data recorded off the southern coast of Talibong Island in November 2006. A lot of boat noises were detected in the morning. The results show that the daily patterns of local boat activities almost fit with the daily pattern of boat noise as shown by sound data.