Crunch Time for Thai Fishing Fleet

Over the past 19 years, 3,219 Thai fishing trawlers and 28,461 fishermen have been seized in waters off Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Australia, Burma, Malaysia and Cambodia. In many of these cases the Fisheries Department and the Foreign Ministry had to use taxpayers' money to pay hefty fines for the release of the crews as well as for their repatriation. Many operators of the seized trawlers refused to pay the fines and transportation costs, forcing the Fisheries Department to sue them for repayment.

The continued encroachment on other countries' exclusive economic zones (EEZ) by the Thai fishing fleet is a constant headache. Recently, the Fisheries Department threatened to withhold any assistance to fishing trawlers and crews found illegally fishing in other countries' waters.

Ironically, the industry continues to grow in spite of the fact that our fishery resources have been depleted at lightning speed over recent decades.

To understand the trend, one must look four decades back.

It all started in 1960 with the introduction of the dragnet, which allowed trawlers to net an average of 200 kilograms of fish per hour. But as trawlers equipped with dragnets grew in number, fish stock dwindled drastically in Thai territorial waters. Now fishing trawlers operating in Thai waters can pull in only 30-40kg of fish per hour.

As a result, Thai trawlers have to go farther out from shore to fish. But the designation of 200-mile exclusive economic zones by countries in the region has restricted the area where the Thai fishing fleet can legally operate.

At present, the Thai fishing fleet comprises about 20,000 well-equipped trawlers, resulting in huge over-capacity. This number does not include another 30,000 unregistered trawlers.

The government has consistently failed to limit the number of trawlers because the fishing industry is very well connected with powerful politicians. At the same time, the domestic demand for marine products is one million tonnes per year.

Efforts to seek fishing concessions with other countries have largely failed because they fear cheating by the operators of the Thai fishing fleet. It has been a common practice for Thai fishermen to use one permit for three to four fishing vessels.

Countries like Indonesia have admitted that they lose up to $2 billion [Bt80 billion] annually because of illegal fishing by foreign trawlers.

But many Thai trawlers, more than 1,500 by some estimates, illegally fish in Indonesia's EEZ, some disguising themselves by flying the Indonesian flag.

For many operators in the industry, it is worth the risk. Knowing well that many countries like Burma and Indonesia do not have the capacity to enforce the law in their EEZ, these operators knowingly send their trawlers into foreign waters.

And because greed is the main motivation behind their illegal action, one should not expect sympathy when foreign governments take harsh measures - such as the sinking of Thai trawlers by the Indonesian navy.