Govt urgently tackling IUU fishing

 

File photo

 

BANGKOK, 23 January 2018 (NNT) - The government has announced that it will call a meeting with relevant units to follow up on the effects of action taken to stop illegal fishing. 

President of the Thai Fisheries' Association Mongkhon Sukcharoenkhana on Monday met with Deputy Prime Minister Gen.Chatchai Sarikulya to discuss the problem of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in Thailand.

 

The deputy premier was informed of problems in the fishing sector such as a shortage of workers. The president also told the deputy PM that there are not enough ATMs available to pay wages to fishing workers. 

Regarding the government’s purchase of impaired fishing vessels which have no license, the deputy PM said that the boats will be inspected first before they are bought, but there is still no budget for the purchase of boats at this stage. 

Gen.Chatchai said today the government will call a meeting on IUU fishing every Monday to follow up on the progress of work by relevant units.

 

-- nnt 2018-01-23

This is an ongoing issue, earlier reports had me thinking it had been resolved.

 

Not enough ATMs, there are plenty in Thailand surely not an issue. 

 

I suspect the urgency is about how to continue this unsustainable practice

Since these issues were officially flagged up years ago with many new rules implemented along with a monitoring and enforcement regime that we were assured would resolve this problem there appears to be an entirely new, Thai-style definition of 'urgent' in play here.

just goes to show that all the new regulations brought in the last couple of years to stop all this were all wind, what ever happened to the bots that were not licensed etc not being able to leave port, seems that the fishermen just kept doing what they always have, decimating the waters with their illegal methods

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The deputy premier was informed of problems in the fishing sector such as a shortage of workers.

 

Well, stop throwing them overboard when they complain.

 

 

Is there anything the military rulers of Thailand have accomplished since they took over in 2014? All empty words it seems like. EU and USA should bann import of seafood from Thailand.

The junta could easily done more with 4 uninterrupted years and Article 44 but really have no desire or political will. Probably too much at stake to lose for themselves and friends. 

1 hour ago, Eric Loh said:

The junta could easily done more with 4 uninterrupted years and Article 44 but really have no desire or political will. Probably too much at stake to lose for themselves and friends. 

They could have paid for surface ships instead of subs and let them patrol looking for illigal fishing vessels. But i still say the junta did a lot far more then the previous governments ever did in this area. You right they could have done even more but its already a couple of 100% more then what the PTP did.

 

The junta should have done a lot of things better they could have done so with their power.. they did not because they wanted to stay popular and in power. 

25 minutes ago, robblok said:

They could have paid for surface ships instead of subs and let them patrol looking for illigal fishing vessels. But i still say the junta did a lot far more then the previous governments ever did in this area. You right they could have done even more but its already a couple of 100% more then what the PTP did.

 

The junta should have done a lot of things better they could have done so with their power.. they did not because they wanted to stay popular and in power. 

EU threatened a trade ban over illegal fishing in 2015 not prior. Maybe got to do with the coup. EU not convinced that enough reform, control and inspection been implemented after the warning. Message seem getting to the ministry rather slow perhaps deliberately. 

2 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

EU threatened a trade ban over illegal fishing in 2015 not prior. Maybe got to do with the coup. EU not convinced that enough reform, control and inspection been implemented after the warning. Message seem getting to the ministry rather slow perhaps deliberately. 

Yes the EU threatened about it in 2015... did that mean the situation was not as bad before that time with YL in power ? It does mean she did not do anything either so yes the junta did a lot more then her that is for sure. 

5 minutes ago, robblok said:

Yes the EU threatened about it in 2015... did that mean the situation was not as bad before that time with YL in power ? It does mean she did not do anything either so yes the junta did a lot more then her that is for sure. 

Not sure but you seem to be very sure but the reality don’t stacked up. 

6 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Not sure but you seem to be very sure but the reality don’t stacked up. 

Of course I am sure .. YL did 0.. So everything Prayut did is a huge increase. I have been following the fishery tale for quit some time and progress has been made. The EU agrees.. i guess they know then you for sure. Is it perfect.. nope far from. Is a lot improved yes. If it was not why do you think the fishermen are protesting so much... not because they get their way.

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Govt urgently tackling IUU fishing

By charging a couple of french tourists a tremendous amount of money for catching some parrot fish?

EU's yellow card for Thailand is probably up for review. Hence the soundbites.

58 minutes ago, robblok said:

Yes the EU threatened about it in 2015... did that mean the situation was not as bad before that time with YL in power ? It does mean she did not do anything either so yes the junta did a lot more then her that is for sure. 

Cannot say you are wrong; YL did probably close to zero about the problem and Prayut was planning to do the exact same.

The only reason he jumped into action was that he was forced to by the EU threatening them; not because he saw things going wrong, he wanted to protect the seas, he wanted to stand up for exploited workers.... only because not taking action would have resulted in huge problems (missing billions from exports, loss of jobs, loss of profits).

 

If the threats would have come under YL she would probably have done the same. As well as under Abhisit, or any previous military/civilian government.

 

So we can credit him for having taken action when he needed to.

Just as we can credit Taksin and Yingluck for many things they did well.

 

Btw, I would have loved to see a plan of approach, including timelines. And a regular update in the media, whenever a milestone is reached, keeping everybody informed.

Unfortunately neither the government nor the media is interested in informing the population.

1 minute ago, Bob12345 said:

Cannot say you are wrong; YL did probably close to zero about the problem and Prayut was planning to do the exact same.

The only reason he jumped into action was that he was forced to by the EU threatening them; not because he saw things going wrong, he wanted to protect the seas, he wanted to stand up for exploited workers.... only because not taking action would have resulted in huge problems (missing billions from exports, loss of jobs, loss of profits).

 

If the threats would have come under YL she would probably have done the same. As well as under Abhisit, or any previous military/civilian government.

 

So we can credit him for having taken action when he needed to.

Just as we can credit Taksin and Yingluck for many things they did well.

 

Btw, I would have loved to see a plan of approach, including timelines. And a regular update in the media, whenever a milestone is reached, keeping everybody informed.

Unfortunately neither the government nor the media is interested in informing the population.

Your correct, but a lot has been done.. i know  people want to fault the junta for almost everything but in this case they did do a lot (not enough) But according to the EU they made sufficient process and you can bet they kept a closer tap on it then you and me.

 

There still is a lot to do you can't expect the situation in a few years going from zero to 100%. One of the things you can see Prayut had done some good things is that he gets a fair amount of complaints from the fishermen. (cant reform without complaints). I wish Prayut has done more and on other fields too.. he had unlimited power and did not have to worry as much about being popular. Unfortunately he wants to stay in power longer so he did not do all the things that are unpopular but necessary. 

Discussions on whether Yingluck did more or less than the Junta are irrelevant.

 

The responsibility is with the current administration and the issue has not been resolved, why is this?

4 minutes ago, Oziex1 said:

Discussions on whether Yingluck did more or less than the Junta are irrelevant.

 

The responsibility is with the current administration and the issue has not been resolved, why is this?

Your reasoning is not sound.. suppose you smash a crystal bowl in 1000 pieces and then an other has glue it together. That is a hard work and not easy.. Who is to blame then.. the one gluing it back together or the one that smashed it. (in this case the previous mob saw the crystal bowl in 1000 pieces but did nothing and now the one finally doing something gets the blame.. instead of the previous mob who could have started the process too. 

Of course, the situation has radically improved under the current administration.

" Official inspections of 474,334 fishery workers had failed to identify a single case of forced labour."

Unfortunately, the EU parliament will today learn that this was a  “theatrical exercise for international consumption,”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/23/human-traffickingand-violence-rife-thai-fishing-industry-uks/

I think a massive miscalculation by the government is going to result in an EU ban with chances that the US may follow suit. May take time to come into play but little doubt it will happen. Time for Thai governments of all shades to grow up and realise the principle that you can fool all of the people all of the time only applies in Thailand.

9 hours ago, Orac said:

Since these issues were officially flagged up years ago with many new rules implemented along with a monitoring and enforcement regime that we were assured would resolve this problem there appears to be an entirely new, Thai-style definition of 'urgent' in play here.

Really Is that the narrative for our Team Deflector this week? or any facts to back up those impressive sounding sentences?!

3 hours ago, robblok said:

Your reasoning is not sound.. suppose you smash a crystal bowl in 1000 pieces and then an other has glue it together. That is a hard work and not easy.. Who is to blame then.. the one gluing it back together or the one that smashed it. (in this case the previous mob saw the crystal bowl in 1000 pieces but did nothing and now the one finally doing something gets the blame.. instead of the previous mob who could have started the process too. 

I remain unconvinced on the competence of this administration to deal with the pressing issues. This group as so many before are self interested and so far have failed to move forward with sound solutions to this and other problems facing Thailand.

They have had the time to demonstrate their commitment. More effort is required.

Really Is that the narrative for our Team Deflector this week? or any facts to back up those impressive sounding sentences?!

Will this govt press release from over 2 years ago with virtually the same title help?

http://thailand.prd.go.th/ewt_news.php?nid=1917&filename=index


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11 hours ago, webfact said:

Govt urgently tackling IUU fishing

this is all reactionary, absent intl pressures, nothing here would ever be done;

perhaps a new leading definition of third world country

11 hours ago, webfact said:

deleted

Edited January 23, 20188 yr by Bluespunk

16 hours ago, robblok said:

Of course I am sure .. YL did 0.. So everything Prayut did is a huge increase. I have been following the fishery tale for quit some time and progress has been made. The EU agrees.. i guess they know then you for sure. Is it perfect.. nope far from. Is a lot improved yes. If it was not why do you think the fishermen are protesting so much... not because they get their way.

Well, now all the "not-by-the-junta-controlled" news outlets report on this, i must retract my earlier praise of the actions of the junta as it seems they have done about nothing.

Maybe time to read the HRW report:

https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/01/23/hidden-chains/rights-abuses-and-forced-labor-thailands-fishing-industry

 

Basically nothing has been accomplished.

 

Shame on the junta.

Again they had the opportunities to make a change, and again they did absolutely nothing.

Hope the EU sees it that way also, and a tradestop will be coming soon.

Almost on que .... todays news

 

HRW report finds forced labour, rights abuses of migrant workers still widespread in Thai fishing fleets

2 hours ago, Bob12345 said:

Well, now all the "not-by-the-junta-controlled" news outlets report on this, i must retract my earlier praise of the actions of the junta as it seems they have done about nothing.

Maybe time to read the HRW report:

https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/01/23/hidden-chains/rights-abuses-and-forced-labor-thailands-fishing-industry

 

Basically nothing has been accomplished.

 

Shame on the junta.

Again they had the opportunities to make a change, and again they did absolutely nothing.

Hope the EU sees it that way also, and a tradestop will be coming soon.

I read about it... lets see who the EU believes. I am not so sure nothing has been done.. but will see. I trust the EU in this to know better then both of us.