Abstract
Marine fishery is an economically important sector and the primary source of livelihood for coastal fishers in Thailand, but the open access harvesting system and overfishing have depleted fish stocks. The country should address both the issues to sustain a healthy marine fishery and protect the lucrative export market as well as to maintaining seafood self-sufficiency. This paper explains the on-going processes of implementing the measures of restricting the number and size of fishing vessels and fishing efforts to control fishing capacity. The marine resources in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea are categorized into three separate species groups: (1) demersal, (2) pelagic, and (3) anchovies. The precautionary approach is used as the guiding principle, and maximum sustainable yield (MSY) of the three combined resource categories is used as a reference point in setting the total allowable catch (TAC) limits in this exercise. The number of fishing days per vessel per year is stipulated by issuing licenses based on the TAC size and total allowable effort (TAE). Both the advantages and disadvantages of the current fishing allocation system are discussed.
Highlights
Marine fisheries are an economically important sector for the livelihood of Thai people, especially the fishers in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea
The development and implementation of rules and regulations on management of the fishery were based on the analysis of fisheries statistics including catch, effort, species composition, life history, the size distribution of the catch and data compiled by the research vessels, and data gathered by field surveys of artisanal and commercial vessels that were analyzed using holistic and analytical models
While fishing vessels were registered by the Marine Department under the Ministry of Transport, fishing licenses were issued locally by the district offices of the Department of Fisheries (DOF) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives with no centralized database showing information on fishing licenses issued nationwide
Summary
Marine fisheries are an economically important sector for the livelihood of Thai people, especially the fishers in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. As with the other Asian nations, Thailand has a multi-gear, multi-species fishery that employs fishing vessels of various designs and sizes, as well as a multitude of fishers and stakeholders, and exploits overlapping fishing grounds, contributing to the complexities in the country’s socio-economic conditions. This makes it a challenge to both local and national fishery management authorities, as the complexity is beyond the capability of the conventional fisheries management regimes to concur [3]
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