Thailand's fishing industry has had to turn itself around after being battered by criticism, forcing boat operators to try and recruit more Thais as fishing crew. However, recruitment has not attracted much interest.
The fishing industry has over the past few years become the target of international criticism over alleged involvement in human trafficking and forced labour in which most victims were migrant workers from neighbouring countries.
The allegations brought the country the worst possible "Tier 3" placement in the US Trafficking in Persons report.
Despite all the hard work the government did to improve the ranking, Thailand was only moved up to "Tier 2 Watch List" in the latest US Trafficking in Persons report and is still being closely monitored by both the European Union and the US.
This has driven many Thai fishing trawler operators to start using Thai crew members instead of migrant workers.
Aside from trying to avoid the closely watched trafficking and other labour issues, operators have had to turn to Thai workers because many of their old migrant employees have left and returned to their own countries.
As a result, Samut Songkhram provincial office in cooperation with fishing industry operators has come up with a pilot project to recruit Thai nationals aged 18 to 55 to train as fishing trawler crew.
The trainees, in accordance with labour law, earn between 400 and 600 baht a day when working on fishing trawlers.
One month after the project was introduced, Mongkol Sukcharoenkhana, president of the National Fisheries Association Thailand, admits interest in working on trawlers has been disappointing.
Only locals have applied; there are no recruits from other provinces, he said.
Mr Mongkol said a weak public relations campaign was probably to blame.
He said he was considering asking the Interior Ministry to step up the campaign to encourage more people to apply.
Currently there are only about 30 applicants and all of them are from Samut Songkhram.
"Out of the approximately 8 million people registered under a government project to provide financial assistance to low-income people, there should be many young men interested in the guaranteed minimum wage of 400 baht per day [to be a fishing boat crew member]," said Mr Mongkol.
Wasan Juimanee, 34, said he signed up partly to find out why Thais refused to work on trawlers and left the work to be done by migrant workers.
The former cook called it quits after spending 13 years working in a kitchen on Koh Samui in Surat Thani and returned home to Samut Songkhram.
He said he had run a catering business and simply wanted to try something new.
Around the time he returned to Samut Songkram, many trawlers had stopped fishing due to the labour problems, which resulted in a shortage of seafood that had also affected his catering business.
"Improved working conditions coupled with the introduction of modern, labour-saving fishing gear should help make the work easier," he said.
Saichol Kaeopholert, 35, another programme trainee, also wondered why few Thais want to work on fishing trawlers.
He said despite the long hours and the work being gruelling, he was willing to give it a try.
He speculated on why more and more migrant workers are turning their backs on trawler work.
"As to why many migrant workers have turned their backs on it and opted for jobs in factories, I think that is because migrant workers are now fed up with the hard life and want to look for lighter work.
"More of them tend to spend money on luxury items than the Thai workers do," he said.
Atthaya Amnongpho, of the Samut Songkram employment office, said one incentive to attract potential applicants to attend its occupational training project, would be for her office to arrange transportation for prospective trainees to attend the training.
The training consists of three days of classroom learning and 10 more days of hands-on training designed to prepare trainees to be able to work and live on a fishing trawler, said Theerapol Khunmuang, the director-general of Department of Skills Development.
Knowledge about labour practices and the law is also provided as part of the training, Mr Theerapol said, adding programme participants are paid 300 baht a day during the training period and 400 to 600 baht per day when they start work on the fishing trawlers.
Accommodation and food are provided for trainees on the course who are also promised the opportunity of further training in engineering if they want to try something else after working on trawlers for a while.