Thai navy chains 8.000 fishing boats
The Thai navy has taken more than 8.000 fishing boats out of service because the owners failed to register.
This follows the European Union's threat to stop importing fish if Thailand does not put an end to poor working conditions, including slavery on fishing vessels and illegal fishing methods.
Fishing boats are only given a new license after inspection and compliance with obligations. This measure is the result of the EU's threat of an import ban due to illegal fishing practices. an example of this is skate fishing in which trawl nets of a no longer permitted type are used. There was a Thai ban, but it was not enforced.
According to a navy spokesman, more than 42.000 fishing boats are registered and can continue to fish. The 8.024 unlicensed boats include small two-man boats as well as large 600-ton commercial vessels. Most boats fish in Indonesian and Myanmar waters.
In December, the EU will decide whether Thailand has done enough to comply with the EU's IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing) regulation. If that is not the case, an import ban on Thai fish products is imminent.
Thailand is one of the largest fish exporters in the world and one of the largest suppliers of fish in Europe.
Source: Bangkok Post
Yet another thing that the European Commission does well, and not to the detriment of Europe and its inhabitants. Would they finally become walkers there?
It seems clear to me that something had to be done in Thailand's fisheries, and if the government does not want to listen, measures like these are simply necessary, and also help, as this shows.
Those 8.024 boats are now being scrapped or given to the police special investigation bureau so they can use them as “tea money” for their families.
@Editorial,
Of the 8.024 that were therefore “drained” because the license was not in order, was this the only thing that was not in order?
There was a Thai ban on certain trawls that no soul cared about.
(Crazy, isn't it? We're not even surprised anymore.)
Will this also be checked?
Is also very detrimental to the survival of the little fry, whether it is a shrimp or a fire-breathing dragon.
I think the Netherlands has done well with herring.
But such a forward-thinking measure is absolutely impossible here.
Read it recently (early of the century?) and I thought on thaiblog that the way of thinking of the thai will always remain childish.
Compare this with the wrong diversion of the rain to the sea instead of to the water reservoirs.
LOUISE
I have been doing food business with Thailand since 1977: first as a central buyer at a German club, and since 1994 in my own company. In 1995, a fish and seafood cannery manufacturer told me that several Thai ships even used dynamite to drive the fish out of the coral. Never done a splash. Environment ? in Asia ? Anyone else interested, just look at the dumped dirt everywhere.
Even now things are done in front of the stage, but the EU warnings are already 5 years old. Now that the end of the ultimatum is approaching, people are becoming active for a while.
Is there really anyone who believes that those ships will remain out of service and will not sail again after some painting and renovation work, but now in the hands of some higher politicians and their families?
It's been that way for centuries.
I saw or rather heard that with that dynamite in Prachuap Khiri Kahn in 2012, I haven't been there since, so I don't know if they still do that. At that time there was regular checks by the navy on the boats for workers from myanmar.