Fishing crew lay-offs looming
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Looming trawlers will have to stop hiring workers if they are forced to dock
MORE THAN 4,000 people in Ranong province risk losing their jobs by the end of this month if fishing trawlers are still not able to go out to sea in the face of stricter law enforcement.
Since July 1, authorities have only been allowing trawlers with a complete set of required documents such as fishing and steersman licences to continue fishing.
“More than 200 large fishing trawlers are now docked ashore,” Tawee Boonying, president of Ranong Fisheries Association, said yesterday, adding that the operators believe they can only hire their workers until the end of this month, while they are trying to sort out this problem.
“They have no income, so if things do not improve, they will have to stop hiring,” Tawee said, estimating that the fisheries sector has 3,000 trawlers and employs about 20,000 people.
However, many of these trawlers are anchored ashore because they do not have the complete set of documents in place.
The Port In-Port Out Centre in Songkhla province yesterday disclosed that six trawlers had been cleared through the “port-in” system yesterday.
“All these six trawlers are fully legal,” the centre’s chief Lt-Commander Wanchana Rattanachaya said.
He said hundreds of fishing trawlers are docked because they lack proper documentation. For now though, the operators do not face arrest as the authorities in Songkhla are trying to help them comply with relevant laws.
“Authorities concerned such as the Marine Department have been organising tests for steersmen and boat-engine mechanics. When the trawlers’ crew pass the tests, they will obtain the necessary documents for fishing,” he explained.
In addition, a local branch of the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission is offering to train fishermen on radio communication, so they can get a proper licence.
Meanwhile, Trang Industrial Council’s president Adisorn Tan-aengchuan said factories in his province could cope with the fact that many fishing trawlers had to be docked, as they had ordered raw materials from overseas.
The authorities had, after all, announced their intention to strictly enforce the “port-in-port-out” system in advance in order to address the problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).
“However, consumers will likely be affected as seafood prices continue rising,” Adisorn said.
Separately, national police chief General Somyot Poompanmuang yesterday vowed to closely study reports about some illegal fishing trawlers trying to block legal trawlers out to sea.
“Security agencies are looking into these reports,” he said.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said the authorities had received a lot of information on these reports. It has been alleged that operators of some illegal fishing trawlers believe that if there is a shortage of seafood, the authorities will automatically have to opt for a more lenient approach.
