An attempt by lawmakers to amend the 2015 Royal Ordinance on Fisheries could put Thailand at risk of getting another yellow card from the European Union (EU) as the bill, now in the Senate, could lead to destructive fishing.
Wichoksak Ronnarongpairee, chairman of the Thai Sea Watch Association, said he disagreed with many parts of the amendment, especially the revision of Section 69.
The present section states that no person shall use a surrounding net with net meshes smaller than 2.5 centimetres while fishing at night.
He said the new version will allow nighttime fishing using fine-mesh nets smaller than 2.5 centimetres beyond 12 nautical miles from shore.
"With a smaller size fishing net, bigger volumes of aquatic life will be caught, including larva," he said.
"The amendment will put the country at risk of an EU warning again as using harmful and destructive fishing gear is an EU concern regarding having a sustainable marine ecological system," he said.
Wichoksak: Small net meshes pose risk
The amendment to the Royal Ordinance on Fisheries was proposed by the now-defunct Move Forward Party (MFP), the precursor of the People's Party (PP), and was shelved in the last parliament. It was later dusted off and resubmitted to the House of Representatives in 2023 by Woraphop Viriyaroj, a PP list MP, in the current parliament.
The amendment was passed by the Lower House and is now in the Senate. The Upper House has set up a special committee to study the amendment after it was agreed upon in principle to accept it on Jan 13. The committee has about 30 days to finish its study for the Senate's deliberation, expected later this month.
Tawat Suraban, chairman of the special committee conducting the study, said some senators had expressed concern over the issue as they had received information that the EU is closely watching what happens regarding the fishing amendment.
"A warning is possible if the amendment goes too far, especially the issue of destructive fishing gear and worker's welfare," he said.
Tawat: Workers' welfare also an issue
The 2015 Royal Ordinance on Fisheries was enacted by the Prayut Chan-o-cha government, replacing the Fisheries Act, to deal with destructive fishing as well as human trafficking. It followed an EU threat to ban Thai seafood in 2015 and the US Department of State downgrading Thailand one year earlier to Tier 3, the lowest ranking on its Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.
Back then the government expected the new fishing law would prevent Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, preserve aquatic resources as a sustainable source of food, protect the welfare of seamen and prevent all forms of forced labour in the fisheries sector.
The law saw a cut in the number of trawlers from 10,000 to 8,954 at present. It also promoted the welfare of workers and banned unfriendly fishing gear, including nets with mesh smaller than 2.5cm. With this effort, the EU announced on Jan 8, 2019, the lifting of the yellow card against Thailand in recognition of the substantive progress the country had made against IUU fishing.
Although the law is a boon for the country, lawmakers wanted to amend it. The Department of Fisheries also agrees to the change.
Bancha Sukkaew, director-general of the Department of Fisheries, said the law needs changing to make the regulations up to date and eradicate some duplication with other laws.
He said the new bill would enable the country to catch more fish, especially stolephorus anchovies, which are used for animal feed and fish sauce.
He said Thailand uses the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) at 221,459 tonnes as a reference in determining the total allowable catch of stolephorus anchovies per year. But last year, the catch volume was only 90,000 tonnes.
Thailand also imports about 20,000 tonnes of the fish each year. The amendment will allow the country to catch more stolephorus, saving it from making unnecessary imports, he said.
"Anchovies have a lifespan of approximately one year. If they are not caught, they will die naturally, which is an economic loss," he said.
Bancha: Bill can reduce imports
Importantly, the department believes that additional obligations should be imposed while allowing the use of fine nets with mesh sizes less than 2.5cm to reduce the impact on marine ecological systems, he said.
For example, January to March is when fishing vessels can use the small-mesh nets to catch anchovies in the Gulf of Thailand while the Andaman Sea season runs from May to July.
Only 175 licensed trawlers can catch anchovies, and those vessels must be equipped with a vessel monitoring system that can send a tracking signal every 15 minutes.
In addition, the power of the lights used for night fishing to lure the fish must not be more than 40 kilowatts, he noted.
Mr Wichoksak of the Thai Sea Watch Association said it is "ridiculous" to allow the use of fishing nets with small mesh to catch anchovies because their use will catch all young fish regardless of species.
"The price of anchovies is very low. They are a cheap raw material for the animal feed industry. This cannot compare to what we will lose if many juvenile fish are caught," he said, adding that this fishing gear will have an adverse impact on the daily catches in the future.
The amendment was designed with bias and disregard for environmental sustainability, he said.
"This is unacceptable, especially given the pledge by the government to the world community to implement a law to meet the Sustainable Development Goals."
Lawmakers should take into consideration that marine resources must be protected for the next generation not for consumption today, according to a local group of fishermen.
Federation of Thai Fisherfolk Association President Piya Tetyam said the amendment will lead to more problems, including the risk of marine resource losses and an impact on the environment, which will cost hundreds of billions of baht annually.
"The licence to use nets with small mesh sizes, as well as the ability to employ lights at night, will catch numerous species of young fish. This will deplete natural resources in the long run," he said.
"Although the beneficiaries are a tiny business group, the impact will extend throughout the entire country and hit the stability of fishermen's lives. We must stop this amendment."