Sitting on the dock of the bay

Sitting on the dock of the bay

Lanthom Paethai, a member of the Ban Laem District Fishermen's Association, tours waterfront areas and communities of fishermen affected by the ongoing problems related to IUU fishing.
Lanthom Paethai, a member of the Ban Laem District Fishermen's Association, tours waterfront areas and communities of fishermen affected by the ongoing problems related to IUU fishing.

Thai fishermen had it tough even before the European Union hoisted its "yellow flag", effectively warning the government to crack down on abuses in the fishing industry or face a partial or complete export ban.

But the struggle has become even more pronounced since measures were decreed to straighten out the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities that caused the EU to issue its strong reprimand.

The stiff state measures imposed to stamp out illegal fishing may have won praise from some onlookers, but they are backfiring for fishermen in Phetchaburi who complain that the move is robbing them of their livelihood.

Following a string of tightened measures, a group of Phetchaburi fishermen voiced their dissatisfaction about how they were being treated unfairly, but their complaints seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

Early this month, six members of the Ban Laem District Fishermen's Association decided to lay down their nets and stop going out fishing for a day to confront the problem head-on.

The group said it recognised the necessity of imposing stringent measures against IUU fishing activities, which were put into force after the EU slapped Thailand with a yellow card in 2015 on the grounds that the country had failed to adequately deal with the problem. The EU extended its warning last year.

The Ban Laem group also agreed that Thailand risks getting a red card, which would mean a total ban on the country's seafood exports to the EU, if it fails to comply with the international standards set out.

The problem was that the measures were pushing the local fishermen to dire straits. The group said those in Ban Laem had already suffered for two years and it was high time their grievances were addressed.

Some have been stripped of their trawler licences to operate their boats, the group claimed. The boat helms were locked by authorities, rendering the vessels useless.

If left unused for much longer, their structures would deteriorate and they would no longer be seaworthy, said representatives of the group.

The situation was far worse for boats that didn't have a licence in the first place, they claimed.

In these cases, the owners had no idea when they could secure one while the vessels remain in the water idle, waiting to "rot". The fishermen were afraid they would have to sink the vessels if they had no better choice.

Meanwhile, the properly licensed boats have also been scrambling to find fishing crews. If they are unable to find enough crew members to hire amid the tougher regulations, the boats would also be forced to remain tied up.

The stakes are high for owners of fishing trawlers, especially as any that are found to have breached the Royal Ordinance on Fisheries governing the licences risk being fined or jailed, they said.

Another concern is that fishing catches have markedly declined, suggesting that the strict measures which were put in place to replenish local fish stocks have not worked, according to the association.

There have also been several technical mistakes on the part of authorities that have penalised some fishing trawlers who may not have done anything wrong, said Boonyong Newbutr, the association's chairman.

He said the Command Centre for Combatting Illegal Fishing (CCCIF) went over the documents of all the trawlers in the district to check they were in compliance with the regulations.

However, some of the owners were told to return their vessel registration certificates within a month despite the fact they were properly licensed, he said.

Mr Boonyong said the owners insisted their legal documents were in order, including a prospecting licence required for fishing in Thailand that is known as the atchayabat.

Fishing communities in Bang Laem district are less busy as fewer trawlers venture out to sea these days. With boats laying idle, fishing families have been harvesting cockles to help supplement their income. photos by Supaporn Asadamongkoln

"They [the fishermen] are confident that their atchayabat papers have not yet expired," he said.

"But the Marine Department [MD] did not even bother to look at them. They just tried to seize the documents."

The authorities then locked the boat helms and painted marks on the vessels showing that they were banned from fishing, he claimed.

"In Ban Laem district, the owners of some 30 boats are now appealing this," Mr Boonyong said.

Some have been left in the docks for more than a year, causing their owners huge financial losses, he added.

"When a boat has been in the dock for so long, it becomes covered in barnacles and slowly starts to sink," Mr Boonyong said.

Association member Lanthom Paethai said when the EU issued its yellow card, the MD was initially unable to say how many fishing trawlers there are in the country, suggesting there are shortcomings in the way licences have been issued and overseen.

The MD said the question should be answered by the Department of Fisheries (DOF), which is assigned to approve fishing licences. But the DOF is also unable to provide a clear answer, according to Mr Lanthom.

Fishing boats are tied to a pier in Ban Laem district in Phetchaburi after being ordered by authorities to remain ashore while problems with illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing are being sorted out, hurting their livelihoods. THANARAK KHUNTON

He said the MD is supposed to check what condition the fishing boats are in as part of the process of renewing their boat registrations each year, but that the department has been remiss in not doing this.

It just asked the owners to send the relevant documents for approval without inspecting their boats, Mr Lanthom claimed.

When such inspections were carried out, the boat owners had to pay the officials' travel expenses and other fees, association members claimed.

Other fishermen in Ban Laem are more concerned about the plummeting fish stocks in the area, however.

These have fallen by more than 50% since authorities stepped up efforts to deal with illegal fishing, Mr Lanthom said.

Based on the statistics he gleaned from two squid-catching boats weighing 28 gross tonnes and 32 gross tonnes, respectively, the catches have been falling year after year, he said.

In 2014, their collective catch of squid was 3,465kg per month on average. This fell to 2,595kg in 2015 and 1,745kg in 2016, he claimed. In the first three months of this year, the same figure stood at just 1,400kg.

Mr Lanthom said he was not confident the DOF had used accurate information to base its anti-illegal fishing measures on before rolling them out.

In addition to the dwindling squid numbers, fewer mackerel were hauled in at Phetchaburi and Samut Songkhram, he said.

He said this was very likely because almost 800 boats that push "scoop" nets along the seabed have been forced to dock at ports.

As one of the positive effects of this kind of fishing is that it helps to clean the floor of the ocean, their absence has caused a deterioration in the undersea environment, making it harder for many aquatic animals to find food, he added.

Mr Lanthom said fishermen divide their prey into three broad categories that dictate what kind of nets are used to catch them: Demersal fish, or those that live close to or on the seabed; fast-moving fish; and those that live close to surface of the sea.

The first group tend to move slowly and most have dark brown skins. They usually eat baby shrimp, fish, squid or fish eggs. They include sharks, stingrays, giant catfish, turbots, butterfish and brown-spotted groupers. These fish are caught by trawl nets.

The second group moves quickly and often in schools. It includes spotted mackerel, tuna and swordfish. As these fish do not live in the deep sea, they can be caught by floating nets, he said.

The third group swims in large groups that can number in the hundreds or thousands, making them potentially very lucrative. It includes specific kinds of mackerel, yellow-stripe scad and milkfish, and can be caught by surrounding nets, according to Mr Lanthom.

Armed with this information, local fishermen know exactly what kind of equipment to use to get the best results, he said. However, as this is considered "local knowledge", and possibly outside the purview of Western academic papers or experts, it may be unfair to judge all local fishing practices in the area by international standards, he said.

As such, he called on the authorities to be more open to feedback from local professionals about the measures being put in place to control their activities, especially as these affect their livelihoods.

Asked how the fishermen would weather the storm, one local man said: "Everyone is just waiting for the next election. Fishing has become a job with no future."

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