First croc caught at sea – Yanui’s crocodile catchers

One of the Surat Thani-based crocodile catcher team says that ‘Yanui’ is the first crocodile that he has caught in the sea – a lot more difficult than catching ‘Laypang’, last August’s crocodile captured in a lagoon off Layan Beach.

Head of the crocodile catcher team, Nikhom Suksawat, says, “It took 12 days to catch the crocodile because the weather was very poor with waves up to three metres high. The plan kept on changing all the time. The crocodile kept moving and our strategy had to change as well.”

“We had to check the sea level every time before starting the catching operation as safety has to be a key concern at all times. We have to make sure that the crocodile can really be caught, and we can anticipate its escape routes, otherwise it will be more difficult to follow as it learns from our mistakes.”

“’Yanui’ was more difficult to catch than Laypang last year as Laypang was in a lagoon, which was a closed area and much easier to control.”

“For Yanui we had to wait for to her to come to the water surface. After that we would use lights to steer Yanui to another target area where we had more control over the situation. When we saw Yanui’s red eyes, we used two layers of fishing nets to enclose the crocodile before capturing it.”