All fishing vessels 'must have GPS'
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- PRIME Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered all fishing vessels to be equipped with GPS to prevent them from illegally operating in other countries' fishing zones.

"Each vessel will have a GPS and be issued under one operator," he said yesterday.

He was responding to reports that hundreds of Thai fishermen were arrested in Indonesia after they were found fishing in its waters without permission.

The Thai fishing industry has been slammed for using slave labour and involved in human trafficking, as many fishermen on the vessels come from other countries such as Myanmar and Cambodia.

Some 21 Thai fishermen were scheduled to arrive at Don Mueang Airport at about 9pm last night after being held in detention on Ambon Island in Indonesia. Some were apprehended after their vessels were found in Indonesian waters, while others are thought to have escaped from fishing boats that kept them as forced labourers.

Some Thai fishermen have been stuck on Ambon for years, but those arrested are thought to have been there for much shorter periods.

The reports came as Thailand tries to upgrade its ranking in the United States' Trafficking in Persons report, which last year put it in the group of countries with the worst record on human trafficking.

Prayut said that if Thailand failed to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, other countries would no longer buy Thai seafood and that could cost the nation more than Bt200 billion a year.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/All-fishing-vessels-must-have-GPS-30256949.html

-- The Nation 2015-03-28

All fishing vessels 'must have GPS'

THE NATION

The reports came as Thailand tries to upgrade its ranking in the United States' Trafficking in Persons report, which last year put it in the group of countries with the worst record on human trafficking.

Prayut said that if Thailand failed to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, other countries would no longer buy Thai seafood and that could cost the nation more than Bt200 billion a year.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/All-fishing-vessels-must-have-GPS-30256949.html

-- The Nation 2015-03-28

They are not taking action because slavery and human trafficking is just plain WRONG, but because if they are not seen to be doing something they could loose a lot of money!

I use the term "seen to be doing something" advisedly, as TIT and face is more important than actions, allegedly.

PRIME Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered all fishing vessels to be equipped with GPS to prevent them from illegally operating in other countries' fishing zones.

Thanks for the stock tip, General!

Let me just Google GPS manufacturers ….

If anyone has ever flown over the Gulf of Thailand at night and seen all the boats below, you know this would be impossible to implement. Good luck though....

Most of the larger fishing vessels I have seen already have GPS. I seriously doubt that the territorial encroachment was unintentional - these boats know where they are.

The Thai govt continues to be "reactive" to human trafficking/slavery news reports....if they only had the willingness, brains, and compassion to be "proactive" but they appear to be sorely lacking in those departments. Lots of talk but very slow action.

PRIME Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has ordered all fishing vessels to be equipped with GPS to prevent them from illegally operating in other countries' fishing zones.

Thanks for the stock tip, General!

Let me just Google GPS manufacturers ….

the cheapest smartphone has GPS.....

Now the RTN has to check each boat with a roof.

I see it in front of me, retractable roofs or I was just fooling with the thing and it just fell over board, or I cannot read, or no have money.

Good luck mr. general.

Nearly all Thai fishing vessels already have global positioning systems on board for navigation purposes. The sort of thing you have on your mobile phone these days. What is required for Thai fishing vessels is the establishment of a vessel monitoring system (VMS) that can be used by environmental and fisheries regulatory organizations to monitor the position, time at a position, course and speed of fishing vessels. One hopes that this is just a translation mistake in the reporting.

Most of the larger fishing vessels I have seen already have GPS. I seriously doubt that the territorial encroachment was unintentional - these boats know where they are.

In another article, fishermens have said they pay off the cost guards somewhere around 50,000 baht each time they cross the territory to turn a blind eye on their fishing, and if they are caught by the marines sometime it would cost as much as 1 million baht to get their boat release, if they are really unlucky they will be thrown in prison.

Nearly all Thai fishing vessels already have global positioning systems on board for navigation purposes. The sort of thing you have on your mobile phone these days. What is required for Thai fishing vessels is the establishment of a vessel monitoring system (VMS) that can be used by environmental and fisheries regulatory organizations to monitor the position, time at a position, course and speed of fishing vessels. One hopes that this is just a translation mistake in the reporting.

Given that the Thai authorities are now requiring overseas register yachts to have AIS on board I also suspect that there may be an error in translation/ inept reporting.

The benefits would extend beyond fishing to people and drug smuggling suppression activities if AIS was compulsory. Additionally it could easily be argued that it would be beneficial in maritime safety.

Globally there has been resistance from fishing industry operators claiming that it would give away commercial information to competitors and increase exposure to piracy.

As others have noted GPS will not stop deliberate encroachment on other counties territorial waters placing crews at risk of detention and possibly enslavement. The other problem that it will not address is that many of the boundaries are in dispute and that many charts are inaccurate. If the proposal is VMS / AIS I believe that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

If anyone has ever flown over the Gulf of Thailand at night and seen all the boats below, you know this would be impossible to implement. Good luck though....

Give em a black box each. They nearly always find these?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_System

That is what they want. Ploblem...it costs a lot of money