of time and tide | atsiri thammachoat

49 tery results after each drawing, as the game was catching on amongst local folks. Then he became more ambitious.

Even though he wasn’t as used to the smell of the sea as he was to the scent of the yellow robes, and though he started a newspaper partly with the secret hope of hobnobbing with the high and mighty in the district, whenever he had the chance, Khun Maha would express his opinion forthrightly in the columns of his newspaper.

Every time he looked at his rickety printing press, oldfashioned as it was, he took great pride in his possession, as well as in his lottery paper, of which he was the sole typesetter, printer, reporter, writer and editor. He felt much indebted to the sea. He had built himself up from a modest stake that came entirely from the sea, and had by and by received acceptance and respect from almost every single soul in this fishing community.

He showed the concern he felt for the local waters and for the local people many years ago in one article which failed to grab people’s attention.

‘The main staple from the sea in the Gulf of Siam is the mackerel, which will disappear one day if we keep letting some of our fishermen go out to sea during the spawning season.

Not only that, but the use of explosives to kill fish destroys the coral, the weed flora underwater, and the various islets and rock formations where the fish and many other marine animals spawn. Furthermore, the department of fisheries does nothing to control the proliferation of trawlers, or to regulate the OF TIME AND TIDE | ATSIRI THAMMACHOAT