Thailand FISHERIES
Inland fisherman
Courtesy United Nations
In the 1980s, the fisheries sector was of major importance to
the economy as an earner of foreign exchange, marine products
accounting for about 10 percent of total exports in 1986. Fish
also accounted for about three-fifths of the protein in the
national diet and an even higher proportion among the poorer
rural population. Until the early 1960s, the country had been a
net importer of fish. This situation completely changed with the
introduction of trawl fishing, which resulted in a dramatic rise
in the marine catch from 146,000 tons in 1960 to 1 million tons
in 1968 and 2.1 million tons in 1985. Thailand became the third
largest marine fishing nation in Asia after Japan and China. Of
Thailand's 40,000 fishing vessels, nearly 20,000 were deep-sea
trawlers, many with modern communication and navigation equipment
and refrigeration facilities.
By 1980 large-scale fishing operations, based largely in
urban areas, were responsible for 88 percent of Thailand's annual
catch. The fishing industry was the economic backbone of many
Thai coastal cities. The increase in the catch of shrimp was
particularly notable, and shrimp exports became a major source of
foreign exchange earnings. By about 1972 maximum exploitation of
demersal (bottom-dwelling) and pelagic (open-sea) fish appeared
to have been reached in the Gulf of Thailand and in the Andaman
Sea. In the early 1980s, production remained relatively static,
and there was growing concern that these areas were being
overfished.
Government control of fishing was limited. The use of certain
kinds of fishing gear within three kilometers of the coast was
banned, but there appeared to be no restriction on trawl net-mesh
size, and undersized commercial food fish were being caught and
dumped in with trash fish in the production of fishmeal.
Moreover, during the 1970s neighboring Cambodia claimed
territorial waters extending to 200 nautical miles from its
coast. This reduced the area in the Gulf of Thailand available to
Thai fishermen and increased the intensity of fishing off the
coast of Thailand. Similar claims by Burma had also restricted
Thai fishing in the Andaman Sea.
Inland fisheries, which included both freshwater and brackish
water fish, officially reported annual catches of about 160,000
tons in the early 1980s. The actual catch--principally freshwater
fish from flooded rice paddies, swamps, irrigation and drainage
ditches, canals, reservoirs, rivers, lakes, and ponds--was
estimated to be much higher. It was believed, however, to be
declining as population growth resulted in overfishing and as
increasing water pollution from industrial waste, insecticides,
and siltation caused by forest destruction took its toll.
The most promising course for maintenance of fisheries
production at the level attained in the 1970s, or for increasing
output, was the expansion of aquaculture, including the culture
of fish, shrimp, and various mollusks, such as mussels, oysters,
and clams. According to the Department of Fisheries, about 4.5
million hectares of inland water areas, mostly rice paddy fields,
were suitable for aquaculture. Another 1.3 million hectares,
including estuaries, mangrove swamps, and tidal flats, were also
usable (see
table 13, Appendix).
Data as of September 1987
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