The government now lists exactly 10,743 legal fishing trawlers and boats, and is hunting for unregistered vessels to destroy. As of Aug 16, Thailand had 10,743 "white vessels"-- or registered fishing vessels, while 6,315 vessels are still unregistered. "The definite number of fishing vessels was never clear because of the voluntary registration system in the past which made regulation of fishing vessels really difficult," said Mr Chirute. The Marine Department commenced the destruction of nine unregistered vessels Wednesday on the shore of Samut Sakhon province. Thailand was previously issued a yellow card by the European Union (EU) for inadequate monitoring of fishing vessels.

Source: Bangkok Post September 12, 2018 21:45 UTC