Clampdown on illegal mackerel fishing vital to protect species, says Fisheries Association

[webfact]

Clampdown on illegal mackerel fishing vital to protect species, says Fisheries Association

By The Nation

 

FILE photo

 

The National Fisheries Association has urged the Thai government to take strong action to protect short-bodied mackerel, which are “near extinction”. The association points to what they say is the illegal use of submerged gill nets along coastal areas during the egg-laying season.

 

“I put my position at stake. I will quit if the Fisheries Department strictly forbids the use of gill nets during the short-bodied mackerel's egg-laying season, but the number of short-bodied mackerel does not increase,” association president Mongkol Sukcharoenkhana said.

 

Though the Fisheries Department has officially closed fishing in the Gulf of Thailand’s bays during the species’ egg-laying season, many of the 70,000-80,000 local fishing boats continue to illegally fish along coastal areas. They use gill nets, which catch a large number of the breeding mackerel that are still carrying eggs in their bodies.

 

Mongkol said that, although a gill net is not an illegal tool, many traditional fishing boats are using larger than permitted nets. While a traditional boat was allowed to use up to 2,500 metres of gill nets, some were using nets of 10,000 to 20,000 metres.

 

Mongkol urged that the Prime Minister and the Agriculture Minister act against the boats violating the laws and impose strict control via a fishing licence registration and through requiring detailed log books of the fishermen.

 

Mongkol added that the government had imposed strict regulations and laws in the past five years to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), but their actions were, he alleged, based on information obtained from those who had “twisted facts”. As a result, moves to tackle IUU have not been effective and have caused negative impacts on all fishermen, he said.

 

Source: http://www.nationthailand.com/news/30372119

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand  2019-07-02

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[HeyHeyHey]

29 minutes ago, webfact said:

Though the Fisheries Department has officially closed fishing in the Gulf of Thailand’s bays during the species’ egg-laying season, many of the 70,000-80,000 local fishing boats continue to illegally fish

Money, money, money number one.

 

Together with failed state where police and courts don't work as they should.

[Damaz6052]

The fishery will collapse if nothing is done. The price of seafood is already very high in Thailand.

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

Fishing has already collapsed in Thai waters.

[DrTuner]

They'll just do like the local custom is. Use until it's beyond salvage and move to the next victim. RIP mackerel population. Sod sustainability and maintenance.

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Mongkol said that, although a gill net is not an illegal tool, many traditional fishing boats are using larger than permitted nets. While a traditional boat was allowed to use up to 2,500 metres of gill nets, some were using nets of 10,000 to 20,000 metres.

 

So stop them !!!!!

[seajae]

looks like some of the fishers are waking up to the fact they simply cant do as they want and take what they want, after all the crap they carried on with when the govt introduced new laws they are finally realizing they are destroying their own livelihoods through their greed

 

[DPKANKAN]

3 hours ago, HeyHeyHey said:

Money, money, money number one.

 

Together with failed state where police and courts don't work as they should.

They have 2 hopes and 1 of them is Bob!!!!

[lujanit]

17 hours ago, webfact said:

Mongkol said that, although a gill net is not an illegal tool, many traditional fishing boats are using larger than permitted nets. While a traditional boat was allowed to use up to 2,500 metres of gill nets, some were using nets of 10,000 to 20,000 metres.

I think the translation is wrong.  2500 metres is 2.5 kilometres and a large vessel would be needed to carry and fish this size net or nets. 20 kilometres (20,000 metres) of nets is a lot of weight to carry. 20 kilometres of longline yes this I can see but net, not unless it is a very large vessel.  Maybe an extra 0?

[Lenny Jones]

15 hours ago, hotchilli said:

So stop them !!!!!

Stop them?

 

2 problems there:

 

1) Creating a task force to police the existing laws.

 

2) Getting that task force to work properly and keep it's nose clean.

 

The current situation with mackeral - in the middle of the breeding season - is their attractiveness - loaded with highly-prized fish eggs.  Hence the harvesting - -

[rickudon]

Monofilament gill nets are actually very light, depends on what floats and weights are added. A 100 metres of the net itself may only weigh a couple of kilos. when doing fisheries work we sometimes had a couple of hundred metres of nets In a 5 metre boat. A kilometre of nets is nothing in a 10 metre boat. The issue is more about how long it takes to set the net and especially retrieving it. 

 

Also, just believing if you stop fishing the fishery will recover is wishful thinking. You get to a point of no return where the food web flips from it's current, unstable state to a new one and another species becomes dominant (usually a far less desirable one). This happened on the Grand banks fishery in the Atlantic. At its height 800,000 tons of cod a year were caught. Due to the reluctance of politicians to severely restrict fishing and pressure on scientists to produce favourable reports, by the end of the 1980s the fishery collapsed and it was found only 1% of the fish were left. 30 years after a cod fishing ban recovery was still weak, stocks were still at only 10% of their original levels.

 

Similar disasters on a smaller scale  continue to happen. Which is why that for the last 30 years world  wild capture fisheries total catch has been stagnant, even though the number of ships has increased, technology has made equipment more efficient, and total effort has increased. Fish are a declining part of the catch - these days more of it is invertebrates and harvested wild plants. We are running out of new stocks to exploit.

[Dumbastheycome]

26 minutes ago, rickudon said:

Monofilament gill nets are actually very light, depends on what floats and weights are added. A 100 metres of the net itself may only weigh a couple of kilos. when doing fisheries work we sometimes had a couple of hundred metres of nets In a 5 metre boat. A kilometre of nets is nothing in a 10 metre boat. The issue is more about how long it takes to set the net and especially retrieving it. 

 

Also, just believing if you stop fishing the fishery will recover is wishful thinking. You get to a point of no return where the food web flips from it's current, unstable state to a new one and another species becomes dominant (usually a far less desirable one). This happened on the Grand banks fishery in the Atlantic. At its height 800,000 tons of cod a year were caught. Due to the reluctance of politicians to severely restrict fishing and pressure on scientists to produce favourable reports, by the end of the 1980s the fishery collapsed and it was found only 1% of the fish were left. 30 years after a cod fishing ban recovery was still weak, stocks were still at only 10% of their original levels.

 

Similar disasters on a smaller scale  continue to happen. Which is why that for the last 30 years world  wild capture fisheries total catch has been stagnant, even though the number of ships has increased, technology has made equipment more efficient, and total effort has increased. Fish are a declining part of the catch - these days more of it is invertebrates and harvested wild plants. We are running out of new stocks to exploit.

Very true. And  coupled with that is  the  gross waste of  fishery processing which in itself has exacerbated the rapid decline. Not  to be ignored or  discounted  is the  oceanic  pollution  which has  dramatically inhibited the  reproduction rate of  desirable fish stock.