Agriculture and Co-operatives Minister Chatchai Sarikulya has urged authorities to boost oversight of the fishing industry ahead of a visit by European Union representatives to audit Thailand's measures against illegal fishing early next month.
Speaking during a survey of the fishing industry in the coastal province of Samut Sakhon yesterday, Gen Chatchai said he had instructed various agencies to step up efforts to examine the whole fishery process.
Authorities need to ensure thorough checks on trawlers arriving and departing, and boost efforts to examine the marine animals unloaded as well as verify crew members, the minister said.
Efforts also need to be made to enhance understanding among fishing operators of the need to cooperate with the authorities, he said, adding the authorities must work stringently in accordance with the law.
Representatives of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) are scheduled to carry out the audit early next month.
The audit comes after the EU gave Thailand a "yellow card", or a final warning, in 2015 for its failure to effectively stop illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing (IUU). A ban on the export of processed seafood to Europe is likely if the country is deemed to have failed to fix these shortcomings.
Since then, the government has enforced strict legal controls to bring the fishing sector into line, including prohibiting destructive fishing gear, setting up a Vessel Monitoring System and enforcing a 2015 royal decree on fishing to weed out illegal activities. It also imposed strict laws on the employment of migrant labour.
Gen Chatchai yesterday surveyed several locations of the fishery industry in Samut Sakhon, including a major pier where the catch is unloaded on shore, a seafood processing factory and some boat piers.
According to the minister, much progress has been made in the country's measures to combat IUU.
The measures, he said, are needed to ensure the country's fishing industry is free of IUU from top to bottom, particularly the system for checking back on how the fish were obtained.
Fishing boats will be instructed to make a record of each catch, including types and quantity, as well as documenting equipment, Gen Chatchai said.
When the catch is unloaded on the piers, aquatic animals must be separated in line with their types and weighed.
For those to be sent to the seafood central markets, they need to be weighed before being transported.
At the markets, both buyers and sellers must record types and quantities of seafood involved in their trade on designated documents so the information can be used to track down the origin of the products, he noted.
Concerning the oversight of fishing trawlers, the minister said various documents, such as licences, log books, catch records and aquatic animal transport certificates need to be examined prior to docking, Gen Chatchai said.