If we want to save our ever more depleted seas from overfishing, we need to stop illegal fishing and punish commercial trawlers and their environmentally destructive fishing methods.
Fishing communities and environmentalists have been making this call for years through successive governments, but nothing has happened.
Last month, the European Union threatened to give Thailand a "yellow card" for failing to curb its illegal fishing. If nothing improves within six months, the country risks receiving a "red card", which entails sanctions on seafood imports from Thailand.
Earlier this week, the Prayut cabinet — in an apparent effort to show the EU that their sanctions threat has been heard — issued an order to keep commercial trawlers in line.
According to the cabinet resolution on Tuesday, the National Fishery Policy Committee must put in place measures to solve illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in line with EU standards. One of the measures is to make it compulsory for trawlers to set up vessel monitoring systems so regulatory organisations can monitor their movements and identify their whereabouts.
It is clear that this cabinet decision aims to protect the seafood export industry; Thailand exports 190,000 tonnes of seafood worth 229 billion baht each year to Europe. Although monitoring commercial trawlers is a move in the right direction, it is not enough to save our coastal seas.
The authorities know who destroys the seas and their negligence is a big part of the problem.
They know that the carrying capacity of our sea is limited to only 3,000 commercial trawlers, yet they have allowed some 7,000 trawlers to operate. Those are just the legal ones. When including undocumented fishing boats, the number of trawlers combing the seas increases to 40,000.
These boats are also notorious for their use of fine-meshed nets and other equipment which damages the sea floor. The habitats of marine life are destroyed and baby fish that could have grown big to be food and valuable catch end up wasted as trash fish for the animal feed industry.
Subsequently, the sea is no longer abundant. It can no longer supply domestic consumption and sustain millions of coastal fishing communities. According to the Fisheries Department, the catch drastically fell from 300 kilogrammes of fish per hour in 1961 to a mere 17.8 kilogrammes per hour. Only one-third of the catch is commercially valuable; the rest is sold as trash fish.
Fishing communities have repeatedly called on the authorities to enforce the law which bans trawlers from coastal areas; they must operate at least three kilometres from the shores. Many trawlers fishing illegally are owned by local mafias with links to local or national politicians. It is why the laws, both on prohibited areas and destructive fishing gear, have not been enforced.
The government can restore the health of our seas and stay free of the threat of EU sanctions at the same time simply by enforcing the existing laws.
For starters, operators of trawlers which violate the 3km protected zone around the coast must be arrested and punished. So must the boats that use fake registration documents and destructive fishing gear.
Meanwhile, the animal feed industry that buys trash fish from these trawlers must also be subjected to sanctions.
Catches have become abundant once again in many fishing villages in the South after they organised and pushed illegal trawlers away from their seas.
The same is possible for waters along the country's 3,219km coastline if the authorities effectively keep the trawlers away by doing their duty — saying no to tea money — and enforcing the laws.