Flood run-offs affect Samut Sakhon fishing
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Clam breeders and fishermen in Samut Sakhon have been badly affected by seawater getting dirty and diluted since October, when unusually high volumes of fresh water from flooded provinces started being directed to their area.
Coastal environmental conditions have also deteriorated as many types of marine fish have migrated or reduced reproduction, making fishery operations more difficult and expensive, conservation activist Worraphol Lomduangjan said.
The fishing industry is suffering financial problems due to a drop in catch volumes caused by pollution, he added.
Worraphol said he believed that environmental problems and poor seawater conditions would continue until next June before returning to normal and that most breeders had been advised not to invest further.
Several clam breeders, who generate most of their income from seafood restaurants in the province, have been heavily affected because clams die almost instantly when water conditions change.
Possibly tens of thousands of rai of clam and mussel farms along the coast of Samut Sakhon have been affected, as have cockle farms, which is resulting in cockles being sent in from neighbouring provinces.
Fishermen and environmental groups will meet on January 9, and another meeting on behalf of the National Fisheries Association of Thailand is scheduled for January 23.
The Department of Marine and Coastal Resources said that in its weekly inspection of seawater along the coast of Samut Sakhon it had found that the condition was getting worse.
“The condition is deteriorating but it is not yet in a condition considered severe,” director-general Bunchob Sutthamanaswong said. “It should not take long for the seawater condition to return to normal, and the Agriculture Ministry should help solve the problem.”
