Among the many pressing issues accorded priority by the Thai Government, the problem of IUU fishing is at the forefront. The period of validity of fishing licenses issued to fishing vessels will henceforth take into account the quantity of existing fish stocks that can be caught on a sustainable basis. As a result, the number of commercial fishing vessels has been reduced by around 60 percent to just over 10,000 vessels with fishing licenses. Monitoring, control and surveillanceof illegal IUU fishing activities has been vastly improved by the Thai authorities. As can be seen, significant strides have been made over the past three years in Thailand’s efforts to prevent, deter and eliminate all IUU fishing in the country.

Source: The Nation Bangkok September 24, 2018 03:45 UTC