THAILAND: TRAWLING IN THE DARK

Whilst most people on land sleep the waters of the Gulf of Thailand are teaming with life. Welcome to the life of Thailand's night fishermen. As the sun sets boats in their thousands leave the shores to trawl the dark waters returning as dawn breaks. A mixture of poor Thais from the Northeast of the country and Burmese, many working illegally and brought across the border by 'people agents', these fishermen live and work on the trawlers 24 hours a dayfor months on end.

But now after years of unrestricted freedom the waters are gradually yielding less of a bounty. When in previous years captains have boasted of 10,000kg catches this year they are lucky to bring home 3000kg and with the price of oil showing no sign of decreasing a good profit is now hard to come by and they must travel further and deeper to make up the quota.

These images were awarded an official Honourable Mention in the 2009 International Photo Awards (www.photoawards.com)