Greenpeace releases report on destructive fishing in Thailand

[webfact]

Greenpeace releases report on destructive fishing in Thailand
By Digital Media



BANGKOK, June 27 - The Greenpeace vessel Esperanza is now docked in Bangkok's Klong Toey Port to promote the environmental NGO's campaign to stop destructive overfishing in Thailand.

The independent global campaigning organisation launched a report today on the “Ocean in the Balance: Thailand in Focus”, presenting shocking evidence of destructive fishing operations in the Gulf of Thailand.

The Esperanza has been in Thailand since June 15, working with coastal communities and civil society groups in Songkhla and Prachuap Khiri Khan to call for stronger fisheries laws in order to save the Gulf of Thailand.

“We saw first-hand how hundreds of commercial fishing boats were operating in the Gulf of Thailand, emptying everything in their path with fishing methods that destroy the marine environment. If this continues, our oceans will be barren perhaps for a decade.


Photo by Greenpeace: Immature marine life caught in a small mesh net

"The Thai government must stop it with stronger laws and enforcement,“ said Sirasa Kantaratanakul, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

When witnessing illegal fishing, she said the group reported the actions to the authorities but the culprits could not be arrested as the law required the arrest to be done while the illegal action is being carried out. When the authorities come to the scene, they have already escaped.

Greenpeace activists also documented the massive extent of destructive large scale commercial fishing operations and submitted their findings to representatives of the Fisheries Department at Thursday's press conference.

Some fishing activities were seen in areas off-limits to commercial fishing such as the Ang Thong Marine National Park.

The report notes that average fishing operations would yield 300 kg per hour in 1961 but by 2011, it dropped to only approximately 25 kg per hour, demonstrating the degree of depletion that has taken place.

Greenpeace is asking the Thai government to stop destructive fishing such as using bottom trawlers, push nets, clam dredges and light luring, and to expand the coastal fisheries protected zones to five nautical miles and to 12 nautical miles where needed.

Bottom trawling uses weighted nets that are dragged along the sea floor, catching all marine life including turtles and immature fish from the bottom to the top of the net, especially when used with the small mesh net sizes.

Greenpeace also called for the enforcement of large mesh sizes and fishing tools to catch only mature marine animals and the stop of dirty development and unchecked construction along coastlines recognised as having rich biodiversity and sensitive areas.

The Esperanza will end her tour in Bangkok on Sunday and will sail to the Philippines. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2013-06-27

[clockman]

Will never happen, There religion is greed!

[lee b]

What ever law is in place it will not stop these fisherman from emptying the sea! Today is the only day, there is no tomorrow !!

[AleG]

I can attest to the use of fine mesh nets, I spent a few days with a NGO clearing derelict nets nets in Chumporn's reefs and most were fine enough you couldn't push a ping-pong ball through. At night you could see hundreds of fishing boats lighting up the horizon in every direction.
Thai waters are severely over exploited and the reefs thrashed. Change either comes soon or the ecosystem will collapse, bah, it's collapsing already.

This one was wrapped halfway around the reef.

The lost nets just keep killing and killing...

You can see the size of the net mesh, this things catch everything on their path.

[Pimay1]

Greenpeace. Now that is a credible bunch of loosers.....not.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138850/Greenpeace-paraglider-bombs-French-nuclear-reactor-mock-terror-attack.html

[TomTao]

All you need to do is look at the fish mongers in the markets, the fish are getting smaller and smaller, try to explain to them that by catching all the babies and juveniles, and there wn't be any fish left to catch very gets mixed reactions, some look with horror at the prospect of having no fish to sell in the near future, others just uncomprehendingly from the small fish they are selling, up to the speaker and back at the fish, before simply saying something like "rubbish there will always be fish, there always have been and there always will be!", at that point they start to become defiant.

[Bluespunk]

Slave labour and destructive fishing practices. Great, just great work boys. Add drug running and you will have a perfect trifecta of utterly unscrupulous behaviour. Ever considered politics?

[Mosha]

Greenpeace. Now that is a credible bunch of loosers.....not.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138850/Greenpeace-paraglider-bombs-French-nuclear-reactor-mock-terror-attack.html

Whatever you think of Greenpeace. They are spot on with this. Visit a local market, or better still. Watch the Thai trawlers haul the enlarged nylon stockings they call nets.

[seajae]

whats really stupid is that what the thai people eat we used as bait, I am unable to eat most of the thai fish as they are either crappy tasting or too small to get any meat off, they have decimated their fish stocks and there are bugger all breeders left.

Ignorance and the love of money have destroyed it all here.

[Pimay1]

Greenpeace. Now that is a credible bunch of loosers.....not.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138850/Greenpeace-paraglider-bombs-French-nuclear-reactor-mock-terror-attack.html

Whatever you think of Greenpeace. They are spot on with this. Visit a local market, or better still. Watch the Thai trawlers haul the enlarged nylon stockings they call nets.

I undestand that and your description of the Thai trawlers is correct. But to have an organiation like greenpeace representing you was the jest of my post.

[monkey4u]

whats really stupid is that what the thai people eat we used as bait, I am unable to eat most of the thai fish as they are either crappy tasting or too small to get any meat off, they have decimated their fish stocks and there are bugger all breeders left.

Ignorance and the love of money have destroyed it all here.

The same applies to farmers. How often do you see descent red tomatoes ot yellow full size lemons

[PoodMaiDai]

This is natural selection at work. The people kill off the fish, animals, and land. In return, the people will die off eventually. Some people will just die off sooner than others.

[hellodolly]

Slave labour and destructive fishing practices. Great, just great work boys. Add drug running and you will have a perfect trifecta of utterly unscrupulous behaviour. Ever considered politics?

Found it interesting they could get those close up pictures but not a word about slave labor.

I have a hard time with tunnel vision organizations.

All though what they say does make a lot of sense.

[winstonc]

Slave labour and destructive fishing practices. Great, just great work boys. Add drug running and you will have a perfect trifecta of utterly unscrupulous behaviour. Ever considered politics?

Found it interesting they could get those close up pictures but not a word about slave labor.

I have a hard time with tunnel vision organizations.

All though what they say does make a lot of sense.

marine ecology is there game dolls,,but you are correct,,,maybe the sooner the seas are like the desert no,more slavery on boats its a win/lose situation,,this coutry is going to have to learn the hard way im afraid,3rd biggest fish exporter in the world i believe ,not for much longer,,ill miss my fishfinger sarnies,,,,,,

[Neilly]

"The Thai government must stop it with stronger laws and enforcement,“ said Sirasa Kantaratanakul, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

[rametindallas]

I don't know about Thai fishermen but on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the fishermen are the most ignorant, stupid, selfish, and greedy people I have ever met, as I lived on a sailboat among them for ten years. They invest nothing to replenish the stocks they take for free (those waters belong to all of us), they fight tooth and nail against any restrictions on the minimum size of the fish they can catch, the fought ten years against TEDs (turtle excluder devices), they fought against bottom trawling. They are their own and everyone else's worst enemy. They seem determined to stop only when there are no more fish or shrimp in the sea.

Maybe if governments would treat fishing like farming i.e. the fisherman has an area that is exclusively his and he must tend it and not overexploit it if he cares about his future. Fishermen would pay to the public treasury for their leases in a once in five year or ten year bid. They will not be allowed to fish on some other fisherman's area just as one farmer cannot harvest another farmer's produce. In this age of cheap, accurate GPS (or the new Chinese version Thailand wants), there would be no excuse for encroaching on another's fishing grounds.

Enforcement could come from GPS tracking and any fishermen bringing unlawful catch to be sold would have their boats confiscated the be banned from fishing for five years (like they treat cheating politicians now). Draconian enforcement is the only way to get these stubborn fishermen to allow the ecology, that belongs to all of us, to recover.

[Thai at Heart]

I don't know about Thai fishermen but on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the fishermen are the most ignorant, stupid, selfish, and greedy people I have ever met, as I lived on a sailboat among them for ten years. They invest nothing to replenish the stocks they take for free (those waters belong to all of us), they fight tooth and nail against any restrictions on the minimum size of the fish they can catch, the fought ten years against TEDs (turtle excluder devices), they fought against bottom trawling. They are their own and everyone else's worst enemy. They seem determined to stop only when there are no more fish or shrimp in the sea.

Maybe if governments would treat fishing like farming i.e. the fisherman has an area that is exclusively his and he must tend it and not overexploit it if he cares about his future. Fishermen would pay to the public treasury for their leases in a once in five year or ten year bid. They will not be allowed to fish on some other fisherman's area just as one farmer cannot harvest another farmer's produce. In this age of cheap, accurate GPS (or the new Chinese version Thailand wants), there would be no excuse for encroaching on another's fishing grounds.

Enforcement could come from GPS tracking and any fishermen bringing unlawful catch to be sold would have their boats confiscated the be banned from fishing for five years (like they treat cheating politicians now). Draconian enforcement is the only way to get these stubborn fishermen to allow the ecology, that belongs to all of us, to recover.

No no no. If the retailers would stop chasing a saving of 1 cent per kilo and consumers learnt that their choices are raping the sea they might understand that shrimp or fish should be a hell of a lot more expensive than it is.

[rametindallas]

I don't know about Thai fishermen but on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the fishermen are the most ignorant, stupid, selfish, and greedy people I have ever met, as I lived on a sailboat among them for ten years. They invest nothing to replenish the stocks they take for free (those waters belong to all of us), they fight tooth and nail against any restrictions on the minimum size of the fish they can catch, the fought ten years against TEDs (turtle excluder devices), they fought against bottom trawling. They are their own and everyone else's worst enemy. They seem determined to stop only when there are no more fish or shrimp in the sea.

Maybe if governments would treat fishing like farming i.e. the fisherman has an area that is exclusively his and he must tend it and not overexploit it if he cares about his future. Fishermen would pay to the public treasury for their leases in a once in five year or ten year bid. They will not be allowed to fish on some other fisherman's area just as one farmer cannot harvest another farmer's produce. In this age of cheap, accurate GPS (or the new Chinese version Thailand wants), there would be no excuse for encroaching on another's fishing grounds.

Enforcement could come from GPS tracking and any fishermen bringing unlawful catch to be sold would have their boats confiscated the be banned from fishing for five years (like they treat cheating politicians now). Draconian enforcement is the only way to get these stubborn fishermen to allow the ecology, that belongs to all of us, to recover.

No no no. If the retailers would stop chasing a saving of 1 cent per kilo and consumers learnt that their choices are raping the sea they might understand that shrimp or fish should be a hell of a lot more expensive than it is.

I don't disagree with you but ask the question: Which group would be easier to enforce the law on? The fishermen would have their boats at risk, retailers only have to rent a new shop under a different name. Both groups, as well as the general population, severely need an education.

[bigbamboo]

So it's the little fish get caught in the net.

How very Thai.

[Thai at Heart]

I don't know about Thai fishermen but on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the fishermen are the most ignorant, stupid, selfish, and greedy people I have ever met, as I lived on a sailboat among them for ten years. They invest nothing to replenish the stocks they take for free (those waters belong to all of us), they fight tooth and nail against any restrictions on the minimum size of the fish they can catch, the fought ten years against TEDs (turtle excluder devices), they fought against bottom trawling. They are their own and everyone else's worst enemy. They seem determined to stop only when there are no more fish or shrimp in the sea.

Maybe if governments would treat fishing like farming i.e. the fisherman has an area that is exclusively his and he must tend it and not overexploit it if he cares about his future. Fishermen would pay to the public treasury for their leases in a once in five year or ten year bid. They will not be allowed to fish on some other fisherman's area just as one farmer cannot harvest another farmer's produce. In this age of cheap, accurate GPS (or the new Chinese version Thailand wants), there would be no excuse for encroaching on another's fishing grounds.

Enforcement could come from GPS tracking and any fishermen bringing unlawful catch to be sold would have their boats confiscated the be banned from fishing for five years (like they treat cheating politicians now). Draconian enforcement is the only way to get these stubborn fishermen to allow the ecology, that belongs to all of us, to recover.

No no no. If the retailers would stop chasing a saving of 1 cent per kilo and consumers learnt that their choices are raping the sea they might understand that shrimp or fish should be a hell of a lot more expensive than it is.

I don't disagree with you but ask the question: Which group would be easier to enforce the law on? The fishermen would have their boats at risk, retailers only have to rent a new shop under a different name. Both groups, as well as the general population, severely need an education.

The power is 100% in the buyers hands.

Prove that it is fished correctly and I might buy it. If the overseas seafood buyers disappear they will change.

I sold produce to the most stringent buyers in the world. If I couldn't prove every step of the process. No sale. The overseas buyers have the power to change this stupidity.

[Unkomoncents]

I feel bad for these guys. If they could see how the authorities treat everything from murder investigations to rice pledging in Thailand, they wouldn't even waste their time. Overfishing?! Yeah, I'm sure Pol. Col. Somchai will fit that in right after he finishes taking bribes from motorcyclists at the Asoke-Sukhumvit intersection.

I should add that I love fishing and I lived in Thailand for four years, taking fishing trips whenever I had some vacation time. Since returning to the US (where big technology makes fishing a totally different ball-game), I can say that, not only have I caught bigger fish than I'd seen in years, but I've seen monstrous animals compared with what I saw in Thailand. Overfishing in Thailand is such an obvious problem, and in many cases I'd imagine that neighboring countries are as just as bad about this as Thailand (China always stands out in my mind as brazenly exploitative, but that could just be because every two months the US Coast Guard has to escort illegal Chinese fishermen out of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument).

Edited June 27, 2013 by Unkomoncents

[hellodolly]

I don't know about Thai fishermen but on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the fishermen are the most ignorant, stupid, selfish, and greedy people I have ever met, as I lived on a sailboat among them for ten years. They invest nothing to replenish the stocks they take for free (those waters belong to all of us), they fight tooth and nail against any restrictions on the minimum size of the fish they can catch, the fought ten years against TEDs (turtle excluder devices), they fought against bottom trawling. They are their own and everyone else's worst enemy. They seem determined to stop only when there are no more fish or shrimp in the sea.

Maybe if governments would treat fishing like farming i.e. the fisherman has an area that is exclusively his and he must tend it and not overexploit it if he cares about his future. Fishermen would pay to the public treasury for their leases in a once in five year or ten year bid. They will not be allowed to fish on some other fisherman's area just as one farmer cannot harvest another farmer's produce. In this age of cheap, accurate GPS (or the new Chinese version Thailand wants), there would be no excuse for encroaching on another's fishing grounds.

Enforcement could come from GPS tracking and any fishermen bringing unlawful catch to be sold would have their boats confiscated the be banned from fishing for five years (like they treat cheating politicians now). Draconian enforcement is the only way to get these stubborn fishermen to allow the ecology, that belongs to all of us, to recover.

I was under the understanding that between the American and Canadian fishermen they had just about decreased the stock of Atlantic Cod to the point where it would not be able to bounce back.

The strange part about it is they both have very stringent laws on sport fishing and they enforce them. In Canada the Park Wardens or Rangers if you prefer have more authority than The police department or Customs officers.

[Thai at Heart]

I feel bad for these guys. If they could see how the authorities treat everything from murder investigations to rice pledging in Thailand, they wouldn't even waste their time. Overfishing?! Yeah, I'm sure Pol. Col. Somchai will fit that in right after he finishes taking bribes from motorcyclists at the Asoke-Sukhumvit intersection.

I should add that I love fishing and I lived in Thailand for four years, taking fishing trips whenever I had some vacation time. Since returning to the US (where big technology makes fishing a totally different ball-game), I can say that, not only have I caught bigger fish than I'd seen in years, but I've seen monstrous animals compared with what I saw in Thailand. Overfishing in Thailand is such an obvious problem, and in many cases I'd imagine that neighboring countries are as just as bad about this as Thailand (China always stands out in my mind as brazenly exploitative, but that could just be because every two months the US Coast Guard has to escort illegal Chinese fishermen out of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Monument).

What is amazing to me is that these agribusiness giants appear hell bent on creating their own demise.

Surely they aren't that dumb?

[crazygreg44]

The National Marine Park of Ang Thong not the only 'protected' area in which fishing is abundant. I have been on a tour around the Similan Islands, and at nightfall when we were looking for a safe place for anchoring, fishing trawlers active between island and around them chased us away of this part of their "National Marine Sanctuary". We could see by starboard lights that dozens of trawlers had formed a chain, using large nets to close the main transverse paths of tuna and other fish swarms. Fishing in this areas is made possible by those who actually are supposed to protect the Marine Park.

They will never change, the fish on the markets will get smaller, fishermen without income. But they will never quit fishing until everything is gone. They believe there is enough fish for centuries to come, as has always been. And as long as there's catch in their nets, they will feel assured . . . .

I'd suggest to Greenpeace, don't waste your time in Thailand, they will listen to you and smile, and that's what's to it.

[Unkomoncents]

I don't know about Thai fishermen but on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the fishermen are the most ignorant, stupid, selfish, and greedy people I have ever met, as I lived on a sailboat among them for ten years. They invest nothing to replenish the stocks they take for free (those waters belong to all of us), they fight tooth and nail against any restrictions on the minimum size of the fish they can catch, the fought ten years against TEDs (turtle excluder devices), they fought against bottom trawling. They are their own and everyone else's worst enemy. They seem determined to stop only when there are no more fish or shrimp in the sea.

Maybe if governments would treat fishing like farming i.e. the fisherman has an area that is exclusively his and he must tend it and not overexploit it if he cares about his future. Fishermen would pay to the public treasury for their leases in a once in five year or ten year bid. They will not be allowed to fish on some other fisherman's area just as one farmer cannot harvest another farmer's produce. In this age of cheap, accurate GPS (or the new Chinese version Thailand wants), there would be no excuse for encroaching on another's fishing grounds.

Enforcement could come from GPS tracking and any fishermen bringing unlawful catch to be sold would have their boats confiscated the be banned from fishing for five years (like they treat cheating politicians now). Draconian enforcement is the only way to get these stubborn fishermen to allow the ecology, that belongs to all of us, to recover.

I was under the understanding that between the American and Canadian fishermen they had just about decreased the stock of Atlantic Cod to the point where it would not be able to bounce back.

The strange part about it is they both have very stringent laws on sport fishing and they enforce them. In Canada the Park Wardens or Rangers if you prefer have more authority than The police department or Customs officers.

Your post leads to the epiphany that overfishing is a global problem (especially since, if I remember correctly, some 70% of the world's population depends on fish as the main source of protein). The obvious difference is that the US and Canada actually have data about their fish "stocks" (funny how living things are reduced warehouse terminology in the world of capitalism) and are concerned about the sustainability of their fishing fleets. In the last decade, many Massachusetts fishermen went from fighting regulation tooth and nail to actively supporting it. That's because they have lost their jobs, not at the hands of government regulators as they once expected, but because when they go out to fish, they literally catch nothing. Nothing. I wonder if there is even a concept of overfishing in China. I pick on China because its the most belligerent, selfish country on the planet when it comes to fishing rights. The Chinese are battling the Japanese, the Russians, the Philippinos, the Malaysians, the Indonesians, the Koreans and the Americans over fishing rights. Illegal Chinese fishermen killed two Korean Coast Guardsmen in two separate incidents while I was living in South Korea. The US arrests and fines Chinese fishermen on a regular basis (usually in the Hawaiian Islands National Monument; as an aside, I wonder how the Chinese would feel if Americans went birdhunting on the Great Wall), and one of Southeast Asia's biggest geopolitical problems (not to mention the most likely cause of conflict in the region) is Chinese access to fishing and oil in the South China Sea. Its as though the Chinese caught wind of the Truman Doctrine (circa seventy years ago) and thought they could apply Truman's ridiculous, neo-colonial logic to today. The only thing that comforts me is that China is so good at creating enemies that it has absolutely no friends (except Russia, Iran and North Korea...a real dreamteam).

[Thai at Heart]

I don't know about Thai fishermen but on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the fishermen are the most ignorant, stupid, selfish, and greedy people I have ever met, as I lived on a sailboat among them for ten years. They invest nothing to replenish the stocks they take for free (those waters belong to all of us), they fight tooth and nail against any restrictions on the minimum size of the fish they can catch, the fought ten years against TEDs (turtle excluder devices), they fought against bottom trawling. They are their own and everyone else's worst enemy. They seem determined to stop only when there are no more fish or shrimp in the sea.

Maybe if governments would treat fishing like farming i.e. the fisherman has an area that is exclusively his and he must tend it and not overexploit it if he cares about his future. Fishermen would pay to the public treasury for their leases in a once in five year or ten year bid. They will not be allowed to fish on some other fisherman's area just as one farmer cannot harvest another farmer's produce. In this age of cheap, accurate GPS (or the new Chinese version Thailand wants), there would be no excuse for encroaching on another's fishing grounds.

Enforcement could come from GPS tracking and any fishermen bringing unlawful catch to be sold would have their boats confiscated the be banned from fishing for five years (like they treat cheating politicians now). Draconian enforcement is the only way to get these stubborn fishermen to allow the ecology, that belongs to all of us, to recover.

I was under the understanding that between the American and Canadian fishermen they had just about decreased the stock of Atlantic Cod to the point where it would not be able to bounce back.

The strange part about it is they both have very stringent laws on sport fishing and they enforce them. In Canada the Park Wardens or Rangers if you prefer have more authority than The police department or Customs officers.

Your post leads to the epiphany that overfishing is a global problem (especially since, if I remember correctly, some 70% of the world's population depends on fish as the main source of protein). The obvious difference is that the US and Canada actually have data about their fish "stocks" (funny how living things are reduced warehouse terminology in the world of capitalism) and are concerned about the sustainability of their fishing fleets. In the last decade, many Massachusetts fishermen went from fighting regulation tooth and nail to actively supporting it. That's because they have lost their jobs, not at the hands of government regulators as they once expected, but because when they go out to fish, they literally catch nothing. Nothing. I wonder if there is even a concept of overfishing in China. I pick on China because its the most belligerent, selfish country on the planet when it comes to fishing rights. The Chinese are battling the Japanese, the Russians, the Philippinos, the Malaysians, the Indonesians, the Koreans and the Americans over fishing rights. Illegal Chinese fishermen killed two Korean Coast Guardsmen in two separate incidents while I was living in South Korea. The US arrests and fines Chinese fishermen on a regular basis (usually in the Hawaiian Islands National Monument; as an aside, I wonder how the Chinese would feel if Americans went birdhunting on the Great Wall), and one of Southeast Asia's biggest geopolitical problems (not to mention the most likely cause of conflict in the region) is Chinese access to fishing and oil in the South China Sea. Its as though the Chinese caught wind of the Truman Doctrine (circa seventy years ago) and thought they could apply Truman's ridiculous, neo-colonial logic to today. The only thing that comforts me is that China is so good at creating enemies that it has absolutely no friends (except Russia, Iran and North Korea...a real dreamteam).

Well I am not going to start a war, but is it Thais who controls Thai agribusiness?

[yougivemebaby]

There is never any enforcement. Every marine park in the andaman sea is never watched. Only when the dive boats are around will the lil bastards keep their distance. Barely.

[rametindallas]

I don't know about Thai fishermen but on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the fishermen are the most ignorant, stupid, selfish, and greedy people I have ever met, as I lived on a sailboat among them for ten years. They invest nothing to replenish the stocks they take for free (those waters belong to all of us), they fight tooth and nail against any restrictions on the minimum size of the fish they can catch, the fought ten years against TEDs (turtle excluder devices), they fought against bottom trawling. They are their own and everyone else's worst enemy. They seem determined to stop only when there are no more fish or shrimp in the sea.

Maybe if governments would treat fishing like farming i.e. the fisherman has an area that is exclusively his and he must tend it and not overexploit it if he cares about his future. Fishermen would pay to the public treasury for their leases in a once in five year or ten year bid. They will not be allowed to fish on some other fisherman's area just as one farmer cannot harvest another farmer's produce. In this age of cheap, accurate GPS (or the new Chinese version Thailand wants), there would be no excuse for encroaching on another's fishing grounds.

Enforcement could come from GPS tracking and any fishermen bringing unlawful catch to be sold would have their boats confiscated the be banned from fishing for five years (like they treat cheating politicians now). Draconian enforcement is the only way to get these stubborn fishermen to allow the ecology, that belongs to all of us, to recover.

No no no. If the retailers would stop chasing a saving of 1 cent per kilo and consumers learnt that their choices are raping the sea they might understand that shrimp or fish should be a hell of a lot more expensive than it is.

I don't disagree with you but ask the question: Which group would be easier to enforce the law on? The fishermen would have their boats at risk, retailers only have to rent a new shop under a different name. Both groups, as well as the general population, severely need an education.

The power is 100% in the buyers hands.

Prove that it is fished correctly and I might buy it. If the overseas seafood buyers disappear they will change.

I sold produce to the most stringent buyers in the world. If I couldn't prove every step of the process. No sale. The overseas buyers have the power to change this stupidity.

This requires educated, committed, and ethical buyers and Thailand is fresh out of those. If you leave it up to the buyers, they will buy the cheapest and don't care how it got on the market, if it was fished ethically or not, or was stolen off a delivery truck!

[rametindallas]

I don't know about Thai fishermen but on the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the fishermen are the most ignorant, stupid, selfish, and greedy people I have ever met, as I lived on a sailboat among them for ten years. They invest nothing to replenish the stocks they take for free (those waters belong to all of us), they fight tooth and nail against any restrictions on the minimum size of the fish they can catch, the fought ten years against TEDs (turtle excluder devices), they fought against bottom trawling. They are their own and everyone else's worst enemy. They seem determined to stop only when there are no more fish or shrimp in the sea.

Maybe if governments would treat fishing like farming i.e. the fisherman has an area that is exclusively his and he must tend it and not overexploit it if he cares about his future. Fishermen would pay to the public treasury for their leases in a once in five year or ten year bid. They will not be allowed to fish on some other fisherman's area just as one farmer cannot harvest another farmer's produce. In this age of cheap, accurate GPS (or the new Chinese version Thailand wants), there would be no excuse for encroaching on another's fishing grounds.

Enforcement could come from GPS tracking and any fishermen bringing unlawful catch to be sold would have their boats confiscated the be banned from fishing for five years (like they treat cheating politicians now). Draconian enforcement is the only way to get these stubborn fishermen to allow the ecology, that belongs to all of us, to recover.

I was under the understanding that between the American and Canadian fishermen they had just about decreased the stock of Atlantic Cod to the point where it would not be able to bounce back.

The strange part about it is they both have very stringent laws on sport fishing and they enforce them. In Canada the Park Wardens or Rangers if you prefer have more authority than The police department or Customs officers.

I can only speak for the Gulf of Mexico but the fishing 'lobby', in both Canada and the U.S., have a lot of clout with lawmakers. Is there enough sport fishing in to be part of the problem?

[joeaverage]

Greenpeace. Now that is a credible bunch of loosers.....not.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138850/Greenpeace-paraglider-bombs-French-nuclear-reactor-mock-terror-attack.html

this is about the message, not the messenger.

the claims are true, many have seen these practices first hand