Trawlers may lose licences in IUU crackdown
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The owners of more than 8,000 trawlers in 22 coastal provinces may lose their commercial fishing licenses as the authorities consider cracking down on those whose licences don't correspond to the vessel size or fishing activity, and those who have failed
In a bid to comply with the illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) regulations, the Marine Department, the Fisheries Department and the Command Centre for Combating Illegal Fishing Tuesday said a recent survey found a total of 8,024 problematic licenses of first, second and third-class fishing vessels, ranging from 0.2 gross tonnes to 602.
The list of offending vessels will be submitted to the National Council for Peace and Order to issue licence revocation orders, after which the continued use of those trawlers for fishery purposes would be subjected to jail terms and fines.
Kamolsak Letpaiboon, head of the Fishing Association of Thailand, said the ship owners should be allowed to appeal the revoking of licenses as many fishing boats might have missed the survey because they were fishing outside Thailand’s jurisdictional waters. He said the survey process was not clear and he wondered where the number came from.
