The Fisheries Department will ban fishing in the Andaman Sea off four coastal provinces for a period of three months to allow marine creatures to breed and the sea's ecosystem to rehabilitate.
Arunchai Putthacharoen, the department's deputy chief, said the fishing ban, covering 4,696 square kilometres in the Andaman Sea off Phuket, Phangnga, Krabi and Trang, will be enforced from April through to June.
He said the ban is part of the department's management of marine resources to prevent over-fishing and its objective is to allow marine animals to repopulate, especially economically important fish and other marine creatures like mackerel, groupers and shrimp.
Citing statistics of catches before and after a similar fishing ban last year, Mr Arunchai said the measure has worked well.
The catch amounts were registered at 243kg per hour before the ban was enforced, which rose to 619kg per hour after the ban ended.
The ban was announced yesterday at a meeting in Krabi's Muang district chaired by Deputy Agriculture Minister Luck Wajananawat.
It was attended by fishermen, marine officials, and naval officers who will dispatch boats to conduct sea patrols to ensure the ban is followed while it is in place.