Scarce hauls concern local fishermen, conservation officials
Phuket Gazette


Workers sort through undersized catches at a fishing pier in Phuket. Captains reported low yields and undersized fish during the opening days of fishing season. Photo: Gazette file

PHUKET: -- As fishermen across Phuket and Krabi returned to shore after the July 1 reopening of the season, their meager catches furrowed foreheads and drew exasperated sighs.

Fish stocks are dwindling, and many of western Thailand’s captains and deck hands are worried as a fog of uncertainty obscures the future of their industry – and livelihoods.

“Every year it keeps getting worse and worse,” said Maren Boonroat, captain of the Krabi trawler Nam Thawee. “Usually, we catch a lot of fish on opening day. It’s very strange we couldn’t find as many fish as we have in previous years.”

Large fishing vessels were allowed to return to fish in the Andaman Sea after 4,696 square kilometers between Phuket and Trang were closed off so as not to deplete fish stocks during the spawning season from April 1 to June 30.

Conservation officials believe the scarcity of fish is due to a combination of pollution, overfishing and natural weather phenomena.

Full story: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Scarce-hauls-concern-local-fishermen-conservation-officials/64194?desktopversion#ad-image-0

-- Phuket Gazette 2016-07-11

Nothing is for ever! Thais only live for today?

And nets full of undersized fish don't help!

Message to Thai fisherman: Little fish become big fish if they're allowed time to grow.

From the link:

Before, the sea was full of plankton and naturally-occurring food for fish. Now, there is only farang feces and trash, he added.

Glad to see they're putting the blame where it belongs... Those darned foreigners. In fairness, he was mostly blaming over development of hotels, but it speaks volumes that he couldn't resist getting in a dig and deflecting the blame from the zillions of boats pursuing a finite resource.

It's a the same everywhere - overfishing is always done by somebody else.

And nets full of undersized fish don't help!

Message to Thai fisherman: Little fish become big fish if they're allowed time to grow.

Some countries respect their fishing stocks by closing down for more than a 2-3 month window and closely regulating how many boats and how many kg's of a particular specie is allowed to be caught.

"God will provide." Well, that didn't last long. The earth is doomed by human over population. What's that?? God needs more babies? Reality will kill us all and God will sort us out.

"God will provide." Well, that didn't last long. The earth is doomed by human over population. What's that?? God needs more babies? Reality will kill us all and God will sort us out.

Nothing to do with the man in the sky, stop bloody breeding.

Dont forget the trash that the Thai's are so good at dropping either. Considering thy continually bleat on about Thailand belonging to the Thai's they do nothing to maintain it

Mmmm, one day we may have to eat imported seafood here.

"God will provide." Well, that didn't last long. The earth is doomed by human over population. What's that?? God needs more babies? Reality will kill us all and God will sort us out.

Who is this God person? He never seems to be around when needed. Just a figment of your imagination

Two things that could have been considered. First, change the size of the nets so that the smaller fish can escape. That has been done in other countries with the same problem. Second, have a proper sewage system installed because Thais also send their waste into the waters. Alternatively, the hotels could install proper septic tank systems, which should have been done when they were built. A major part of the problem seems to be that when plans were submitted the Thais in charge of approving them knew nothing about what would happen in the future and did not consider having proper facilities installed. However, Thais always seem to pick on "foreigners" rather than blaming themselves for when any problem arises.

“Before, the sea was full of plankton and naturally-occurring food for fish. Now, there is only farang feces and trash,” he added.

Oh really, it's the farangs fault? Not the Thai's? Who issued the building permits? Who didn't build any sewage treatment plants? Who hasn't solved the trash issues? Who over fishes the fishery? Please wake up Mr. Somyos and the rest of you that like to use the farangs as scapegoats for your own ineptitude and inaction.

Now that there are fewer tourists has the water quality improved? Is the mountain of trash gone by the "new incinerator?" Are the streets now trash free? Maybe Mr. Somyos would rather have a tourist ban rather than a fishing ban... In any case, greed has won over the environment, again. Just keep over fishing, that will surely fix the problem!

These guys have overfished the waters for years . i am surprised they caught anything.