The Fisheries Department will this month begin buying 680 unlicensed fishing boats from fishermen to prevent them from illegally resuming their work and to help relieve adversity caused by new stringent fishing rules.
Driven by a need to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), which was highlighted in 2015 by the European Union, department chief Adison Phromthep yesterday insisted on a plan to spend around 3 billion baht to "take the boats out of circulation", although environmental groups have criticised the plan.
The department's announcement came after the National Fisheries Association of Thailand recently threatened to stop fishing if officials failed to buy trawlers from operators, who were forced to decommission vessels which failed to pass acceptable standards, before Oct 8 this year.
Their dissatisfaction with what they have labelled as overly strict new rules escalated on Wednesday as they threatened a seven-day strike if the government failed to clarify, within seven days, how it will deal with various problems now facing the local sector.
Mr Adison admitted a number of fishing boats were not given licences after the government tightened measures to regulate fishing, but "we need to limit their numbers to make them get along with limited marine supplies".
To help fishermen who volunteered to leave their careers, the government will buy their boats so that they will have money to pursue new jobs in other fields, he said.
The buying prices will be based on the condition of the boats, but will "not be more than 50% of a median price", Mr Adison said, adding that the cabinet will have the final say on the purchase plan.
However, Banjong Nasae, chairman of the Thai Sea Watch Association, questioned the word "sustainable" in the government's version.
Voicing his opposition to the purchase plan earlier this week, Mr Banjong said he wants to see the officials focus more on highly destructive fishing gear like uan lom (surrounding nets) and trawlers with generators.
Mr Adison argued his department is also using other measures to prevent overfishing. One is a set of rules on fishing gear, including appropriate length and numbers of ropes and spacing of nets, he said.
Certain vessels will only be allowed to fish for a limited number of days.
"In the Gulf of Thailand, for example, trawlers can only sail for 240 days in a year," Mr Adison said.