Hundreds of trawler owners suspend operation in ports all around the country

[Lite Beer]

NEW REGULATIONS
Hundreds of trawler owners suspend operation in ports all around the country
THE SUNDAY NATION

BANGKOK: -- SOME 900 trawler owners without logbooks needed under new regulations suspended operations in Songkhla yesterday, but there was no blanket suspension as predicted earlier.

The operators announced yesterday as their "D-Day" for suspending their businesses, but it turned out they are still operating trawlers that have the necessary documents.

Songkhla Fishery Association president Praporn Akuru said about 90 per cent of trawlers in the province, about 900, could not go to sea because of the government was enforcing the Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported Fishing regulations - the IUU rules.

Fishery Department director-general Jumpol Sanguansin inspected piers in Songkhla and said 226 trawlers in the province were equipped with logbooks - the rest had fake documents.

Meanwhile, Surat Thani Fishery Association president Anant Chusak claimed the province would lose about Bt100 million a day because up to 2,000 trawlers could not operate.

He said there were only 200 legal trawlers, and the seafood supply in the province came from 1,000 trawlers that could go out in shallow water.

Daranee Chindapan, chief of the Surat Thani Provincial Fishery Pier Office, said seafood prices had soared but there was still enough supply.

Big trawlers docked in Samut Prakan

Samut Prakan Fishery Association president Snoh Mongkolsopon said half of the province's 300 30-tonne trawlers were docked at piers and the other half were anchored at the river mouth.

He said that some foreign workers had licences and some didn't. Those who did |not have licences lost their jobs and were forced to steal to survive.

Trang Fishery Association president Sompol Jirojmontri said 60 trawlers with no logbooks were docked at piers in the province and hundreds of workers had become unemployed.

He said operators would have to spend hundreds of thousands of baht upgrading equipment to the necessary standards, and fishermen did not have the skills to use the equipment.

Samut Songkhram Fishery Association Mongkol Sukcharoenkana said 90 per cent of trawlers in the province did not have the necessary documents to operate.

Meanwhile, up to 400 trawlers in Rayong were docked at piers after the government started enforcement of the IUU rules.

Ban Phe Fishery Association head Somsak Poonsampao urged the government to relax regulations on foreign workers, saying skilled Thai workers were difficult to find and the industry depended on "aliens".

Nakhon Si Thammarat Fishery Association president Sukij Rattanawinijkul said 80 per cent of trawlers in the province were illegal |but their suspension of operations had not affected local seafood prices yet.

'Prices OK for at least a week'

Yanothai Likitwattanaset, manager of a seafood shop in Nakhon Ratchasima, said her shop would be able to keep the prices of frozen seafood at the same level for one week thanks to her stock.

She said some shops imported fresh seafood from Myanmar but it was less fresh than what was usually supplied and she did not want to do that. If she ran out of stock she would stop trading.

Boat owner Ua-angkoon Jongprasertsiri said he turned some of his trawlers into tour boats because he believed trawler operations were a dying business due to the strict rules.

He believed the tour operations had more potential than fishing especially after full integration of the Asean Economic Community at the end of the year.

But Ranong Fishery Association president Thawee Bunying was optimistic about the IUU regulations, saying the strict rules would help protect the fishing industry as illegal fishing methods were destructive.

He urged the government to negotiate with Nay Pyi Taw to give concessions to Thai trawlers to operate in their waters. Many trawler operators were forced to withdraw from Indonesia because the Indonesians had cancelled concessions and replaced them with a joint-venture model with local trawler operators. But he said that business model was not worth getting into because operators could not bring the fish back to Thailand and were forced to sell them in Indonesia at ordinary prices.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Hundreds-of-trawler-owners-suspend-operation-in-po-30263765.html

-- The Nation 2015-07-05

[Manbing]

I wonder where they hid the slaves?

[worgeordie]

I wonder where they hid the slaves?

Dumped overboard,they don't need them now.

regards Worgeordie

[ratcatcher]

"Hundreds of trawler owners suspend operation in ports all around the country"

No proper documentation or registration, no fishing.

So, basically, good news all round.

[NongKhaiKid]

Now then, just who is going to blink first as there's big money involved ?

[BuckBee]

I wonder where they hid the slaves?

on the seabed !

about the best thing they could do would be protest by not fishing for at least 1 year, will do the waters a world of good. plenty of chicken & freshwater fish so nobody going starve besides some Thai fishing bosses bank account. They have used slaves & robbed their own & neighbours waters & made a killing from uncontrolled & illegal practice & typically cry like babies when got do everything in a less profitable & legal manner.

No Buddhism here, it all about the $ for thais

Edited July 5, 2015 by BuckBee

[rijit]

So what type of fish do these trawlers catch ? Prawn and squid ?

rijit

[rijit]

I'm asking cos 99 %.of fish ive eaten in thailand has been farmed.

rijit

[seajae]

using fake documents and they are complaining, how about seizing all the boats using these fake documents and hitting them with extremely large fines of 200,000 baht plus for every year they have been operating under them. Give them 30 days to pay the fines or their boats will be sold to compensate the country for their illegal work, time to teach these idiots that corruption is not the way to go. This shows the mentality of some thais, do it by illegal means so you can make profits & threaten them if they try to stop you, this needs to end so lets hope the govt do not back down but go even further

[Oziex1]

So what type of fish do these trawlers catch ? Prawn and squid ?

rijit

They have a reputation of catching anything and everything. Fish not for human consumption goes into fish food for farms.

[Bluespunk]

"Songkhla Fishery Association president Praporn Akuru said about 90 per cent of trawlers in the province, about 900, could not go to sea because of the government was enforcing the Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported Fishing regulations - the IUU rules."

Good.

[Thai at Heart]

Why are the govt officials explaining the plight of these owners? Is there an.owner anywhere to fight his case. Incredible

[Basil B]

I wonder where they hid the slaves?

on the seabed !

about the best thing they could do would be protest by not fishing for at least 1 year, will do the waters a world of good. plenty of chicken & freshwater fish so nobody going starve besides some Thai fishing bosses bank account. They have used slaves & robbed their own & neighbours waters & made a killing from uncontrolled & illegal practice & typically cry like babies when got do everything in a less profitable & legal manner.

No Buddhism here, it all about the $ for thais

As you pointed out, Thailand will not starve and this will not affect the poor as they can not afford fresh fish anyway, the government needs to hold firm on this so other industries who work illegally know they can no longer hold the government to ransom.

[Lite Beer]

PM urges illegal fishing boats to follow rules

BANGKOK, 5 July 2015 (NNT) - Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has called on illegal fishing boat operators to comply with the laws and cooperate with all sectors in order to avoid damaging domestic seafood consumption and exports.

PM Prayut on Sunday said the fishing boats’ protests significantly affected fishery workers and expressed the government’s readiness to help those who failed to abide by fishing regulations. The premier also suggested that they should work together to solve their problems and move forward with the government’s efforts to improve Thai fishery industry.

Gen. Prayut added that all sides had to tackle problems of the Thai fishing sector seriously so that the country could progress.

-- NNT 2015-07-05

[Thian]

I wonder where they hid the slaves?

On tv (here in Europe) i saw a very happy Indonesian fisherman who was released by the Thai fishers after 20 years. He complainted about the long working hours, no food. He was crying like a baby when he saw his mother again after that long period and he said he would never ever leave his village again.

If he really has been slaved all those years then i would assume the Thai will have to pay him for that.

[dinger]

"He said that operators would have to spensd hundreds of thousands baht to upgrade equipment to the necessary standards, and fishermen do not have the skills to operate the equipment" Now how complex is this equipment and how difficult could it be to get a bit of training to use it?

[jcsmith]

"He said that operators would have to spensd hundreds of thousands baht to upgrade equipment to the necessary standards, and fishermen do not have the skills to operate the equipment" Now how complex is this equipment and how difficult could it be to get a bit of training to use it?

As someone who worked for years in the fishing industry in alaska, I call bs on the training. Upgrading to new machines or to processing machinery would not be cheap. But people can be trained to use that equipment in a day. Companies fishing Alaska would often have a high percentage of new faces every season and they'd all be up and running quickly.

[Shaunduhpostman]

And may the trawlers never leave the harbor again.

[12DrinkMore]

But he said that business model was not worth getting into because operators could not bring the fish back to Thailand and were forced to sell them in Indonesia at ordinary prices.

So they sold the fish in Thailand at extraordinary prices?

[zyphodb]

I wonder where they hid the slaves?

Dumped overboard,they don't need them now.

regards Worgeordie

Worryingly, mate.

You took the words out of my mouth with your overboard comment...

[johnnytuc]

I wonder where they hid the slaves?

Dumped overboard,they don't need them now.

regards Worgeordie

Worryingly, mate.

You took the words out of my mouth with your overboard comment...

[Lee4Life]

"He said that operators would have to spensd hundreds of thousands baht to upgrade equipment to the necessary standards, and fishermen do not have the skills to operate the equipment" Now how complex is this equipment and how difficult could it be to get a bit of training to use it?

Not only that, but just how much is "hundreds of thousands of baht" compared to the profits they have and will make, and also how much did they already save by not keeping their equipment or licensing up to standards for all those years?

[quandow]

"He said there were only 200 legal trawlers"

Visions of "Forrest Gump" returning successfully comes to mind. Perhaps the others will see and comply. Seems that's a supreme talent they have, copying others.

[Oziex1]

I wonder where they hid the slaves?

On tv (here in Europe) i saw a very happy Indonesian fisherman who was released by the Thai fishers after 20 years. He complainted about the long working hours, no food. He was crying like a baby when he saw his mother again after that long period and he said he would never ever leave his village again.

If he really has been slaved all those years then i would assume the Thai will have to pay him for that.

Yeah why not a good human rights lawyer could work this, perhaps.

[wabothai]

If found out that the captains did some nasty thing with the slaves, thailand has something coming.

[Oziex1]

"Ban Phe Fishery Association head Somsak Poonsampao urged the government to relax regulations on foreign workers, saying skilled Thai workers were difficult to find and the industry depended on "aliens""

Local workers cost too much and are difficult to enslave, is the translation I believe.

What a story of rampant greed, corruption, lawlessness and gross stupidity the OP is.

[Thai at Heart]

If they don't buck up their ideas and rapidly come up with a plan, they will lose their markets.

[fareastguy]

Quote:

He said operators would have to spend hundreds of thousands of baht upgrading equipment to the necessary standards, and fishermen did not have the skills to use the equipment.

Ban Phe Fishery Association head Somsak Poonsampao urged the government to relax regulations on foreign workers, saying skilled Thai workers were difficult to find and the industry depended on "aliens".

Two statements that contradict themselves...

1st one say's they don't really want to spend money upgrading equipment that the slaves cannot understand or use.

2nd one begs the government to relax the regulations so that they can continue to use slaves instead of trying to get lazy workshy Thais into fishing that can use the equipment (maybe)

Basically: we cannot find Thai labour for the poor wages & slave conditions therefore we have to use "alien slave labour" from bordering countries, these aliens have no education so if we install international standard equipment they cannot use it anyway (obviously the captain falls into the same category)

Please can you relax the regulations so we can go back to sea as before with no changes !!

[Boatfreak]

I'm asking cos 99 %.of fish ive eaten in thailand has been farmed.

rijit

farmed yes but the food for those fishes or prawn came from whatever they found left on the seabed.

[Boatfreak]

Ban Phe Fishery Association head Somsak Poonsampao urged the government to relax regulations on foreign workers, saying skilled Thai workers were difficult to find and the industry depended on "aliens".

as is applicable for any other industry in Thailand.