Fishing ban in Thai Gulf brings rare shrimps back

[webfact]

Fishing ban in Thai Gulf brings rare shrimps back
By Coconuts Bangkok



BANGKOK: -- The population of aquatic life in the Gulf of Thailand increased ten times more this year compared to last year after the Ministry of Fisheries closed the gulf off for fishing for three months during the spawning season.

Sompong Puangsa-at, the secretary of Chumphon’s fishermen community, says the fishermen now can catch much more banana shrimps, scallops, and fish, while the biggest surprise is plenty of giant tiger prawns or “jumbo shrimps” can now be found in the gulf after their numbers dwindled over the last ten years.

"I have been in fishery for 30 years, and it's very difficult to find jumbo shrimps as large as 200 grams a piece in the past ten years," Sompong says [read more...]

Source: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2014/05/29/fishing-ban-thai-gulf-brings-rare-shrimps-back


-- Coconuts Bangkok 2014-05-29

[bigbamboo]

Great. The price of large Thai prawns and shrimps has shot up over the past two or three years. Maybe the prices will come down now.

Only kidding!

[Eddy B]

All shrimps are an OTOP product so prices will be 200% more than normal.

[UbonRatch]

"Sompong Puangsa-at, the secretary of Chumphon’s fishermen community, says the fishermen now can catch much more..."

I hope he sorts out which countries the fishermen are from, and if they are well treated.

[Patje]

Sompong Puangsa-at, the secretary of Chumphon’s fishermen community, says the fishermen now can catch much more banana shrimps, scallops, and fish, while the biggest surprise is plenty of giant tiger prawns or “jumbo shrimps” can now be found in the gulf after their numbers dwindled over the last ten years.

I do hope they learn from this..... And not overfish again

[bluebluewater]

There was no fishing in the gulf for three months? Sorry, the cynic in me does not believe that for a second. And in one spawning season all things have been made well? By "ten times"? Once again, I think it's BS from someone.

[seajae]

not for long, they will now go out and decimate them them once again. Unfortunately greed takes over with these people when they think they can make money from it, they should be shutting it down much more now instead of over fishing it once more. Until they have closed seasons every year and restricted takes they will never get it back the way it was.

[fab4]

There was no fishing in the gulf for three months? Sorry, the cynic in me does not believe that for a second. And in one spawning season all things have been made well? By "ten times"? Once again, I think it's BS from someone.

If you read all the article and do a bit of research you will find that the three month ban covered certain types of harmful fishing equipment. Also you will find that this ban has been in place for 5 seasons now since 2009. http://www.seafoodsource.com/en/news/supply-trade/19686-gulf-of-thailand-fishing-ban-enacted

[h90]

There was no fishing in the gulf for three months? Sorry, the cynic in me does not believe that for a second. And in one spawning season all things have been made well? By "ten times"? Once again, I think it's BS from someone.

If you read all the article and do a bit of research you will find that the three month ban covered certain types of harmful fishing equipment. Also you will find that this ban has been in place for 5 seasons now since 2009. http://www.seafoodsource.com/en/news/supply-trade/19686-gulf-of-thailand-fishing-ban-enacted

I didn't saw it this year, so maybe something big has changed. But I recall that I saw on the 3 month ban time, the sea full of fishing boats.....OK maybe they

didn't use these types of harmful fishing equipment. And they fished in the national park area as well. On the islands there were plastic nets on the stones with dead fishes and dead turtles in it.

So maybe they did something, but surely they didn't do much.....Or all has changed now.

[FangFerang]

200 grams apiece? 200 grams apiece!?

Where?

Never seen them.

[Bullie]

FangFerang:

Just come to Trat at 06.00 hours. If you're lucky there's an old lady sitting just outside the market that sells these monsters at about 275 B/Kg.

I get lucky about once a week - prawnwise.

[h90]

200 grams apiece? 200 grams apiece!?

Where?

Never seen them.

they should check the mercury and lead content....

[bangrak]

'...closed the Gulf off for fishing for three months during the spawning season...' Uh? What? Where? When? I have 180° seaview, from Angthong marine park to Koh Pha Ngang and beyond, the sea is swarmed with fishing boats, small and large®, day and night, every single day (except storms), many way, way inside the out-of-bounds areas! And never seen ONCE the marine police out of their base. Of all the countries I have been in, the Thai people are those showing the least respect for their environment, and nature in general, they just don't care (greed? lack of education?)! And don't even think, for another Thai, to tell them anything about it, oh my, the reactions they get... Buddhists?

[kuiburi]

Where I live they keep on making arteficial reefs in water 10 to 15 meters deep .

Seems to work in several ways , spawning gounds , no dragnets , and they get rid of old electricposts and other "waste" thats not harmfull in the sea .

[MMarlow]

There was no fishing in the gulf for three months? Sorry, the cynic in me does not believe that for a second. And in one spawning season all things have been made well? By "ten times"? Once again, I think it's BS from someone.

Possibly from you.

[MMarlow]

There was no fishing in the gulf for three months? Sorry, the cynic in me does not believe that for a second. And in one spawning season all things have been made well? By "ten times"? Once again, I think it's BS from someone.

If you read all the article and do a bit of research you will find that the three month ban covered certain types of harmful fishing equipment. Also you will find that this ban has been in place for 5 seasons now since 2009. http://www.seafoodsource.com/en/news/supply-trade/19686-gulf-of-thailand-fishing-ban-enacted

You're right but many TV posters cannot read.

[bartender100]

Anyone know where in Pattaya you can buy prawns that were caught at sea?, I just assumed all were farmed freshwater, even the ones they sell down near Bali Pier are freshwater

[Thai at Heart]

All shrimps are an OTOP product so prices will be 200% more than normal.

The great tambon in the sea.

[I Like Thai]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

not for long, they will now go out and decimate them them once again. Unfortunately greed takes over with these people when they think they can make money from it, they should be shutting it down much more now instead of over fishing it once more. Until they have closed seasons every year and restricted takes they will never get it back the way it was.

Do you eat seafood in Thailand ?

[Longtooth]

Now that we know this, maybe the Chinese will be coming down here claiming it's their territorial waters, and dragging nets for every living creature. They could call the gulf the "South-west China Sea".

[Payboy]

The best thing about these rare shrimp is that they are already headless and deviled when they are caught.

[noitom]

This is big Thai news - jumbo shrimp, the oxymoron of the day. Like military intelligence.

[Taco]

No way are they banning any fishing in Surrathai province for 3 months a year. On the contrary the ching chang fishing boats with nets that catch anything larger then a human hair have been on the increase the last 3-4 years with awful effects on the local fishing. The big ching chang boats scoop up any and everything running all day between samui and phangan and off the west coast of Phangan. They only way they keep the local longtail fisherman quiet is by offering up free ching chang as bait big buckets at a time. In addition the price of wild caught jumbo prawns in the market have gone up almost double in the last year. This story is PR fairytale.

[Maroon Watcher]

Even if BS - It's Good News and may lead to Jungle drums and "low understanding" people to catch on...

I said CATCH-ON! (C.A.T.C.H.)

OOoooh........

Can't beat a fresh hot jiucy one on the beach

[mojorison]

200 grams apiece? 200 grams apiece!?

Where?

Never seen them.

This is correct. Even larger, up to 300g a piece. Not uncommon, but expensive, at around 600 baht per kg, that's 200 baht a prawn at the market...double it at the restaurant... for one prawn... explaining this to a backpacker is quite humourous... and sad at the same time. (We only use sea prawns, there are a lot of farm varieties, but they don't rate.) Off topic, the lobsters here are tiny, and generally not available, but Macro stock live ones for 1700 baht per kg. The largest ones I've seen would be about 300-350 grams. There certainly can't be many of these babies left. Same with the blue swimmer crabs... big, small, male, female... take em all.. who cares.

[northernjohn]

There was no fishing in the gulf for three months? Sorry, the cynic in me does not believe that for a second. And in one spawning season all things have been made well? By "ten times"? Once again, I think it's BS from someone.

If you read all the article and do a bit of research you will find that the three month ban covered certain types of harmful fishing equipment. Also you will find that this ban has been in place for 5 seasons now since 2009. http://www.seafoodsource.com/en/news/supply-trade/19686-gulf-of-thailand-fishing-ban-enacted

I didn't saw it this year, so maybe something big has changed. But I recall that I saw on the 3 month ban time, the sea full of fishing boats.....OK maybe they

didn't use these types of harmful fishing equipment. And they fished in the national park area as well. On the islands there were plastic nets on the stones with dead fishes and dead turtles in it.

So maybe they did something, but surely they didn't do much.....Or all has changed now.

Hopefully things have changed now with Thaksin out of power some of the departments will be able to do what is best for Thailand. Not all there departments were in favor of Thaksin directed policies. Now his leaders are gone. One can always hope.

[IMA_FARANG]

As important for a stable and growing Srimp and Prawn supply is Mangrove tree areas.

Mature Mangrove tees have root systems that provide places where immature Shrimp and Prawns can live and find shelter from predators.

That's how young Shrimp and Prawns survive to reach maturity.

Then, if they survive long enough, theey migrate just off-shore to breed and spawn another generation.

But now thw Mangroves trees are being cut down for "development" and to provide nice little cement boxes on thw beach for wealthy Thais and farangs to live in.

I can remember in 1979 in Phuket therer were big tiger Prawns and Shrimp delivered every day by fising boats direcct to the small restaurants on the beach.

The restaurant owner grilled themon charcoal fires.

3 Prawns were a big meal. In 1979 we thought they were very expensivw at 25 Baht each. I had a small Singa to wash it down. and at 35 Baht it was the most expensive item on the bill.

All the steamed Rice you could eat was free, because what fool would pay for Rice?

But that was LONG ago.

[Brian67]

Had a similar situation in the Northern Prawn Fishery in Australia. The fishery was on the verge of collapse after years of overfishing and with technology improving all the time (GPS being the real stand out there)

Government finally intervened with a lot of, err "regulation" which didn't please everybody but got the desired result.

The two biggest game changers were compulsory vessel monitoring, a sattelite tracking device fitted to all vessels. This thing couldn't be turned off without raising an alarm in Canberra and served as a means of keeping people honest in that they now had no excuse to be in designated nursery areas. Poaching was common before that came along.

The second was culling the size of the fleet, down from 250+ to 50 something boats.

Catches soared within 3 seasons of that happening