Fishing ban in the Andaman Sea will start April 1



BANGKOK: The Fishery Department is to ban fishing in the Andaman Sea off four southern coastal provinces for three months starting April 1 in order to allow fish to spawn and propagate.

The fishing ban will cover a total area of 4,696 square kilometers or 2.9 million rai in the Andaman Sea off Phuket, Phang-nga, Krabi and Trang provinces.

Fishery Department director-general Wimon Chanthararothai said Friday that the fishing ban would coincide with the spawning season of fishes, especially Pla Too or mackerel, and other marine lives.

He said that over-fishing had depleted the number of fishes and other marine lives in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf.

Statistics of catches conducted by the fishing survey vessel showed that before the enforcement of the three-month fishing ban, the amount of catches per hour was registered at 276.76 kilomgrammes. But after the ban, the amount of catches has climbed up to 722.21 kilogrammes per hour.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/155835

-- Thai PBS 2016-03-19

Am I missing something here...How do they know the catch after the ban as it hasn't started yet...there's not been a ban before has there?? Or is this something to do with the date it's supposed to start! April 1st so many entry's for April fool of the year award!

Also they keep everything so need to have a longer ban than 3 months. Maybe if the EU gives them the red card it won't matter anyway !

Most Thai governments in modern times seem - IMO - to have not understood:

“A man cannot build a reputation on what he is going to do.” —Henry Ford

April 1st, what an ideal date !

Queue next article on the plight of the fisherman.

The more you take, the more you make, and everybody wants to make more now, regardless it will lead to less later.

A real conundrum for a growing human population.

Am I missing something here...How do they know the catch after the ban as it hasn't started yet...there's not been a ban before has there?? Or is this something to do with the date it's supposed to start! April 1st so many entry's for April fool of the year award!

Also they keep everything so need to have a longer ban than 3 months. Maybe if the EU gives them the red card it won't matter anyway !

Yep, you're missing something indeed: this is not the first time there is this kind of a 3 months' ban.

When I'm correct, also in the Gulf but starting a bit later. But here (no idea about the Andaman) the enforcement of it was, well, very lax, as I could see with my own eyes...

And before the ban starts here it's all hens on deck for the fishermen, as night after night I can see the lights of hundreds(!) of fishing boats on the sea, making me wonder how many mature fishes will be left ...to spawn!

When one asks fishermen about over-fishing, it's always the same kind of answer one gets: 1) it's our tradition and the only thing I can do; 2) there will always be enough fish in the sea; 3) I have to do it to pay back my loans and feed my family; and, when the owner of the boat: 4) I have a license for it, so nothing can stop me from going on... Very saddening to see that most Thais have no respect whatsoever for nature vegetal or animal, on land and at sea, they're destroying it all.

Two anecdotes:

One day we (well not me Farang alone...) caught a poacher next to our home who had killed what must have been one of the last caprines of the island (the only one we ever saw, every day for a few months), and, though in a more aggressive way, he said the same kind of stuff as the fishermen above, and not a tiny bit ashamed for his criminal behaviour...

Another time while being on the beach (during a fishing ban...) we saw locals spanning a huge net, with mazes as tiny as in mosquito gauze, in the shallow waters, the catch was poor: a few small (young) specimens, but thousands of tiny (baby-) fishes which were left to die on the sand! I asked them whether they had smartphones, some said yes, I then advised those to take pictures of the 'largest' fishes they caught. Why, was their question. My answer: to be able later to show your chidren the pictures of fishes they will never see in the sea anymore, as you will have killed them all... They weren't very happy!

Where are we heading, Sadly the human race will eat the last fish and cut down the last tree to burn for fire to cook it with.