Officials install nets to protect tourists from Portuguese man-of-war

Officials on Wednesday installed nets at a popular beach on Koh Samui to protect tourists from poisonous Portuguese man-of-war.

Officials from the Marine and Coastal Resources Department’s Chumphon-based marine resources research centre for central Gulf of Thailand provinces joined with Koh Samui Municipality and the Koh Samui Tourism Association to install the nylon nets in the sea off Lamai Beach.

The nets are 100 metres long and seven metres deep.

Thanyaporn Ajalawichakul, an official with the Chumphon research centre, said Samui was the first location where the department had installed the protective nets.

The nets will be in place for four months and officials will check them every 15 days.

Thanyaporn said Portuguese man-of-war came near the shore especially in June and many tourists had been injured by the marine hydrozoa.

The department decided to start using the nets at the beach as a pilot projects after a tourist was killed by an animal recently.

The Nation

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