21,000 fishing boats can continue fishing

[Lite Beer]

21,000 fishing boats can continue fishing

BANGKOK: -- About 21,000 fishing boats out of a total of 42,000 have been legally registered and can now set sail to fish.

Agriculture Minister Pitipong Pungbun na Ayudhya said Friday that the ministry would hold discussions with fisheries associations and representatives of fishermen on measures to ease the hardship of owners of fishing boats which failed to get registered and their crews.

As for fishing boats which are equipped with illegal fishing gears and which are banned from fishing, Mr Pitipong said the ministry would try to help them to change the gears so they can carry on with their fishing legally.

But for those who want to give up fishing altogether, he said measures would be worked out to deal with the problem.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/21000-fishing-boats-can-continue-fishing

-- Thai PBS 2015-08-07

[NongKhaiKid]

21,000 boats can fish legally and the rest can just get on with it as well.

[thesetat2013]

Why should the gov he wasting their money doing this? These captains and owners have known that they have been breaking fishing laws and never cared. Now it's being enforced hopefully. Those owners and captains should be jailed or fined for failing to get themselves legal in the time allotted or have their boats taken and registered and made legal and then sold at a reduced cost to new owners willing to comply with laws. As long as the gov allows these people to be treated a victims then the gov will be taken advantage by these criminals. There should be NO excuse for those boat owners not to have the required documents by now. When will this new gov be able to stop paying for the last admins corruption?

[mikemac]

21,000 fishing boat owners have paid for the right to rape, pillage and plunder the sea, following no rules or regulations and without any consideration of the environment and future fishing stocks.

I cannot believe there are so many boats working that size area. The entire trawl fleet of QLD in Australia only has about 600 licenced vessels.

As NKK said, the other 21,000 are probably fishing as well.

[ChrisY1]

Why should the gov he wasting their money doing this? These captains and owners have known that they have been breaking fishing laws and never cared. Now it's being enforced hopefully. Those owners and captains should be jailed or fined for failing to get themselves legal in the time allotted or have their boats taken and registered and made legal and then sold at a reduced cost to new owners willing to comply with laws. As long as the gov allows these people to be treated a victims then the gov will be taken advantage by these criminals. There should be NO excuse for those boat owners not to have the required documents by now. When will this new gov be able to stop paying for the last admins corruption?

Many fleets are owned by the elite.....

[mikemac]

....................."Many fleets are owned by the elite....."..................... Which ones ? Name the fleets and the elite owners. You must know who they are because you made that statement, now prove it !

[godden]

which statement are they saying ' Toe the line' or ' Tow the line' !

[Toknarok]

Whilst I would imagine that many of the fishing boats are owned by their captains and not by the elite, undoubtedly the vast concerns processing and exporting the catch are very probably owned by the so called 'elite'. For an overview of Thailands fishing industry read this report....ftp://ftp.fao.org/Fi/DOCUMENT/fcp/en/FI_CP_TH.pdf

[Bodene]

Whilst I would imagine that many of the fishing boats are owned by their captains and not by the elite, undoubtedly the vast concerns processing and exporting the catch are very probably owned by the so called 'elite'. For an overview of Thailands fishing industry read this report....ftp://ftp.fao.org/Fi/DOCUMENT/fcp/en/FI_CP_TH.pdf

Indeed the probability is that you're absolutely right, the previous poster was just having a senior moment... Everything profitable in Thailand is either corrupt, owned by the elites or (probably) both. Never met anyone rich who wasn't a thief - that's how they got rich.

[Searat7]

Registering a boat should not be so difficult and I think the same applies to having/acquiring legal fishing gear. I suspect many of the boats are still in port because they cannot find legal crews now that slavery has been banned.

[weegee]

21,000 vessels to fish a country that fits twice into Qld ?......far too many still.

plus the stake nets strewn everywhere in smooth waters....I remember 15 years ago, there were 13 Stake nets between the entrance to Songkhla up to the Wharf where the Rig tenders used to tie up....thats about half a mile...Those days you could not proceed in a straight line for more than a hundred yards..up stream is more extreme.

Now thats overfishing!!!

[mikemac]

Whilst I would imagine that many of the fishing boats are owned by their captains and not by the elite, undoubtedly the vast concerns processing and exporting the catch are very probably owned by the so called 'elite'. For an overview of Thailands fishing industry read this report....ftp://ftp.fao.org/Fi/DOCUMENT/fcp/en/FI_CP_TH.pdf

Interesting read, and if I learnt one thing it is that there is a vast difference between the number of fishing boats in Thailand as opposed to QLD, Australia.

For instance Thailand has a coastline of 2,615 km and according to the OP has 42,000 known/licenced/unlicenced fishing boats.

The total length of Queensland's mainland coastline is 6,973 km and there are 600 registered fishing trawlers.

I was a bit disappointed the report did not list the boats that were owned by the elite, whoever they are.

[Doc46]

Why should the gov he wasting their money doing this? These captains and owners have known that they have been breaking fishing laws and never cared. Now it's being enforced hopefully. Those owners and captains should be jailed or fined for failing to get themselves legal in the time allotted or have their boats taken and registered and made legal and then sold at a reduced cost to new owners willing to comply with laws. As long as the gov allows these people to be treated a victims then the gov will be taken advantage by these criminals. There should be NO excuse for those boat owners not to have the required documents by now. When will this new gov be able to stop paying for the last admins corruption?

This is the Thai way, Break the Law long enough ,Than the Government help you pay to get Legal, That's what you call smart But very very low.Doesn't work in my book.

[phoenixdoglover]

Registering a boat should not be so difficult and I think the same applies to having/acquiring legal fishing gear. I suspect many of the boats are still in port because they cannot find legal crews now that slavery has been banned.

The OP is silent on this point.

I suppose registering the fishing boats is a good start. Actually, registering all boats above a certain size seems like standard practice.

Then, putting in place dockside checks on the legal status of the crews. Starting with the bigger vessels, and working down.

Then, redirecting funds for submarines to shallow water patrol boats, and stepping up spot inspections on the water.

Then, very publicly fining vessel Owners, and suspending vessel Captains, who are found to violate the vessel equipment, safety, or worker documentation rules.

All assuming the Navy, Police and relevant Ministries actually want to do something as straight-forward as this.

[billd766]

....................."Many fleets are owned by the elite....."..................... Which ones ? Name the fleets and the elite owners. You must know who they are because you made that statement, now prove it !

Don't hold your breath waiting for an answer.

Edited August 8, 2015 by billd766

[spidermike007]

All the talk now is about registration and licensing the boats. Has anyone else noticed the dialogue about slavery has just gone away. Am I mistaken, or are a large number of these boats operating with Burmese slaves on board? Has anyone followed this up?

[Jimlove]

....................."Many fleets are owned by the elite....."..................... Which ones ? Name the fleets and the elite owners. You must know who they are because you made that statement, now prove it !

Its like corruption in RTP, a 5 year old know its there but to prove it ... Of course many fleets are owned by rich BKK ...

[Sayonarax]

Whilst I would imagine that many of the fishing boats are owned by their captains and not by the elite, undoubtedly the vast concerns processing and exporting the catch are very probably owned by the so called 'elite'. For an overview of Thailands fishing industry read this report....ftp://ftp.fao.org/Fi/DOCUMENT/fcp/en/FI_CP_TH.pdf

Indeed the probability is that you're absolutely right, the previous poster was just having a senior moment... Everything profitable in Thailand is either corrupt, owned by the elites or (probably) both. Never met anyone rich who wasn't a thief - that's how they got rich.

that's a bold statement.

[mikemac]

Whilst I would imagine that many of the fishing boats are owned by their captains and not by the elite, undoubtedly the vast concerns processing and exporting the catch are very probably owned by the so called 'elite'. For an overview of Thailands fishing industry read this report....ftp://ftp.fao.org/Fi/DOCUMENT/fcp/en/FI_CP_TH.pdf

Indeed the probability is that you're absolutely right, the previous poster was just having a senior moment... Everything profitable in Thailand is either corrupt, owned by the elites or (probably) both. Never met anyone rich who wasn't a thief - that's how they got rich.

that's a bold statement.

.............."that's a bold statement."..................actually it's bs, and an insult to the people who worked hard for the money they made, legally.

....................."Never met anyone rich who wasn't a thief"........................possibly associates with criminals who are also wealthy thieves !

[Srikcir]

21,000 fishing boat owners have paid for the right to rape, pillage and plunder the sea, following no rules or regulations and without any consideration of the environment and future fishing stocks.

I cannot believe there are so many boats working that size area. The entire trawl fleet of QLD in Australia only has about 600 licenced vessels.

As NKK said, the other 21,000 are probably fishing as well.

As to the unregistered ships, the government recently announced that it would NOT force their registration for now. That would imply that they are free to continue to fish alongside the 21,000 registered boats.

[sprq]

21,000!!!!! Usually 42,000!!!!!!!!! These figures are utterly absurd. I would imagine the fishing fleets of all the European nations combined are not even 21,000. No wonder the local seas are fished to buggery if that's the number of boats out there. Those numbers even make sustainable fishing an impossibility, even if the boats were actually trying to fish in a sustainable manner. Madness!