Monitoring small-scale marine fisheries: An example from Thailand's Ko Chang archipelago

Abstract

Small-scale fisheries provide food and income to millions of people worldwide, yet these fisheries are generally poorly documented and their impacts not well understood. Improved documentation of these fisheries is needed to gauge global trends, identify the threats to their sustainability, and assess management options. Combining semi-structured interviews and participant observation, this study provides baseline information about the nature and scale of small-scale fisheries in the Ko Chang archipelago, Thailand, as a first step towards instituting a monitoring and management strategy for the area. Although the area has been designated as a “no-take” Marine National Park, small-scale fisheries have continued virtually unabated within the park's boundaries. Small-scale fishers living in the park are involved primarily in the shrimp trammel net, squid trap, crab trap, fish gill net, hook-and-line, and reef fish trap fisheries. Small-scale fishing boats operating out of villages on Ko Chang and Ko Maisi Yai worked for an estimated 38,000 days/year and took 330,000 kg/year of target fish and invertebrates, based on extrapolations from interviews. Observed catches of target species were, however, an average of 42–64% lower than fishers’ reported catches for the fisheries in which both data collection methods could be used. Such a finding suggests that future monitoring should rely on observational techniques to assess the catches and efforts of small-scale participants. Given the area's status as a national park, regular monitoring of the small-scale fisheries should be undertaken and multiple-use zoning be considered.