The Minister of Agriculture and Coopertives has announced a progress in solving the problem of illegal fishing, asking entrepreneurs to take part in the solutions.
Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Petipong Pungbun Na Ayudhya said that in order to address the yellow-card warning against Thai fishing practice by the European Union, Thailand has expedited three measures in order to regulate fishing activities in the country.
The measures included the issuance of a special law to control the industry and the drawing up of an overall management plan for the fishery sector. These measures have already been carried out. The third measure requires all fishing trawlers to register in order to obtain their legal status which has been effective from 1 July 2015.
The Minister said that the authorities will no longer tolerate any misconduct in the fishery business because if the country fails to pass the next evaluation to be taking place this August, the result will affect the entire fishery exports from Thailand.
The Minister of Agriculture called for cooperation from fishery entrepreneurs to adjust their business practices and provide information to the government regarding the status of vessel registration and fishing license.
All vessels weighing more than 30 tonnes are now required to make the port-in and port-out report, and will receive inspections covering the vessel’s license, the fishing license, fishing tools, and the workers on board all of whom must have proper work permits.
Special units have also been sent to provide on-site services for the vessel registration and facilitating other activities from today until 15 July 2015.
