Project no. 003711

Project acronym: ECOST

Project title: Ecosystems, Societies, Consilience, Precautionary principle: Development of an assessment method of the societal cost for best fishing practices and efficient public policies

Instrument Specific Targeted Research Or Innovation Project

Thematic Priority PRIORITY A.2.2, Reconciling multiple demands on coastal zones

Report D2.6 Thailand Case study presentation

Due date of deliverable: April 2007

Actual submission date: June 2007

Start date of project: January 2005 Duration: 4 years

Organisation name of lead contractor for this deliverable: DARE

Revision [draft, 1]

Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006) Dissemination Level PU Public X

PP Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)

RE Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services)

CO Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)

2

Content 2

Case study identification 3

Completion of economic tables 3

Presentation of main fleets 3

Presentation of main gears 3

Presentation of main species 5

Main species catches in EEZ 7

Presentation of main fish chains 8

Synthesis presentation of all metiers 10

Identification of main metiers 11

Main metiers selected 12

Description of trawl fleet (Case study: Otter board trawler in trawl fleet, Gulf of Thailand

13

Description of purse seine fleet (Case study: Anchovy purse seiner in purse seine fleet, Gulf of Thailand)

19

Brief description of national context 23

Case study identification and selection Completion of Economic tables

WP2 Link to the excel file

Presentation of main fleets

Main fishing grounds for Thai fisheries can be divided into two, one in the Gulf of Thailand and the other in the Andaman Sea. Catches from the Gulf of Thailand accounted for 69% of the total catches in 2004. Thai fisheries, like other tropical fisheries are multi-species and multi-gears. Main fleets can be grouped into eight groups; i.e. trawlers, purse seiners, gill netters, falling netters, other mobile netters, hook and liners, stationary fishing, and miscellaneous. In 2004 total catches by trawlers accounted for 63% of total catches while those of purse seiners were 29% . Catches by other fleets were minimal being 4% for gill netters, about 1% each for falling netters, other mobile netters, stationary fishing, and miscellaneous. The catches by hook and liners were less than 1%. (Figure 1)

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Trawlers Purse seiners Gill netters Falling nettersOther mobile netters Hook and liners Stationary Miscellaneous

Figure 1 Catches by eight Thai fishing fleets, 1999 – 2004 (th t) Source: Department of Fisheries Statistics Total number of registered vessels was 16,432, of which 39% or 6,439 vessels were trawlers and 10% purse seiners or 1,699 vessels. Other fishing vessels in the rest six fleets are small comparing to these two.

Presentation of main gears

In trawler fleet, there are three fishing gears i.e. otter board trawl, pair trawl, and beam trawl. For the otter-board trawl, small otter-board trawl being 19 m and less long, had a limited capacity cannot fish outside Thai waters, thus fish mainly in Thai

3

waters. Exceptions are those small otter-board trawls along the borderline which sometimes fish in neighbouring countries’ fishing grounds. This fishing gear is the most important gear in Thai fisheries. Due to fishery resource degradation in the Gulf of Thailand, a number of small otter-board trawl ceased fishing turning to other fishing gears such as beam trawl which could catch more shrimp thus surviving by the better shrimp price. Some, if affordable, left for non-fishing occupations. Larger otter-board trawls could fish outside Thai waters, thus could survive. Pair trawls are usually larger commercial fishing gear. Most of them have been fishing outside Thai fishing grounds. Beam trawl is small fishing gear. Some of them used to be small otter board trawl, suffering from fishing loss thus turned in to beam trawl.

For purse seiner fleet there are two main gears purse seines targeting at various pelagic fish and anchovy purse seines specifically for anchovy. Most of purse seines are large fishing vessels and some have been fishing outside Thai waters. Anchovy purse seine fish only in Thai fishing grounds

Gill netter fleet consisting of various types of gill net including king mackerel gill net, Indo-Pacific mackerel encircling gill net, crab gill net, shrimp gill net, squid trammel net, Indo-Pacific mackerel gill net, mullet gill net, and other gill nets. Falling netter fleet consists of two main gears i.e. squid falling net and anchovy falling net. These are light luring nets. Other mobile netter fleet consists of cast net, acetes scoop net, lift net, other net, and push net. There are two main gears in hook and liner fleet, i.e. long line and hand line/ pole line. For stationary fishing fleet, the gears are set bag net, fish trap, crab trap, squid trap, shrimp trap, ivory shell trap, and bamboo stake trap. These gears are usually for small scale fishing.

Catches by these fishing gears are given in Figure. In 2004, otter board trawl catches accounted for 52% followed by 23% purse seine catches, 11% pair trawl catches, and 6% anchovy purse seine catches. Catches by other fishing gears accounted for 1% or less.

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Otter board trawl Pair trawlBeam trawl Purse seineAnchovy purse seine King mackerel drift gill netIndo-Pacific mackerel encircling gill net Crab gill netShrimp gill net Squid trammel netIndo-Pacific mackerel gill net Mullet gill netOther gill nets Squid falling netAnchovy falling net Other cast netAcetes scoop net Lift netOther nets Push netLong line Handline and Pole & lineSet bag net Fish trapCrab trap Squid trapShrimp trap Ivory shell trapsBamboo stake trap Other gears

Figure 2 Catches by thirty Thai fishing gears, 1999 – 2004 (th t)

4Source: Department of Fisheries Statistics

Presentation of main species

Recently, main catches are pelagic fish followed by trash fish and demersal fish. In 2004 pelagic fish shared 33% of total catches followed by 29% trash fish and 18% demersal fish. Other catches were small including 7% other food fish, 6% squid and cuttlefish, 3% shrimp, 2% crab, 1% mollusc, and less than 1% others. (Figure 3)

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

OthersMolluscSquid&cuttlefishCrabShrimpTrashfishOther food fishDemersalPelagic

Figure 3: Composition of catches from the Gulf of Thailand by group of species during 1999 – 2004 (th t) Source: Department of Fisheries Statistics For pelagic catches, the largest volume is anchovy sharing 19% of pelagic catches in 2004, followed by 18% Indo-Pacific mackerel, 14% sardine, and 11% scad. Those with over five percent share were 9% eastern little tuna, 6% each eastern little tuna and trevally, and 5% big eye scad. Those sharing less than 5% were 4% Indian mackerel, 3% king mackerel, 2% hardtail scad and 1% wolf herring. Those sharing less than 1% were black pomfret, black banded kingfish, mullet, silver pomfret and threadfin. Trend of these catches is given in Figure 4.

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

ThreadfinSilver pomfretBlack pomfretMulletBlack banded kingfishWolf-herringHardtail scadKing mackerelIndian mackerelBig-eye scadTrevallyEastern little tunaLongtail tunaScadSardineIndo-Pacific mackerelAnchovy

Figure 4: Composition of pelagic catches from the Gulf of Thailand by species during 1999 – 2004(th t)

5Source:Department of Fisheries Statistics

For various demersal fish, the top four are big-eye (28% of demersal catches in 2004), threadfin bream (22%), lizard fish (12%), and crocker (11%). Following this group were snapper, ray, and hair tail (4% each); marine catfish, sand whiting, and barracuda (3% each); flat fish, shark, and grouper (2% each), Those sharing 1% were Indian halibut, conger eel. Those sharing less than 1 % were giant seaperch and monocle bream. (Figure 5)

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Monocle breamGiant seaperchBarbel eelConger eelIndian halibutGrouperSharkFlatfishBarracudaSand whitingMarine catfishHair tailRaySnapperCrockerLizard fishThreadfin breamBig-eye

Figure 5: Composition of demersal catches from the Gulf of Thailand by species during 1999 – 2004 (th t) Source: Department of Fisheries Statistics.

For other catches, beside trash fish and other food fish, including the groups of squid and cuttlefish, shrimp, crab, mollusk and others, the composition is given in Figure 6. The species are various and in each group their catches are less than the pelagic fish, trash fish, demersal and other food fish. Among these minor groups, outstanding catches for shrimp was banana shrimp, for crab was swimming crab, for squid there were squid and cuttlefish, for mollusk it was short necked clam. Jellyfish reached its peak in 2000 and decreased rapidly afterwards.(Figure 6)

6

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

OthersJellyfishOysterGreen musselHorse musselScallopBloody CockleOther shellfishShort necked clamOctopusCuttlefishSquidMud crabOther crabSwimming crabJumbo tiger prawnTiger shrimpMantis shrimpFlathead lobsterKing prawnSergestid shrimpSchool prawnBanana shrimpOther shrimp

Figure 6: Composition of shrimp, crab, squid & cuttlefish, mollusc and other catches from the Gulf of Thailand by species during 1999 – 2004 (th t) Source: Calculated from Department of Fisheries data.

Main species catches in the EEZ

Recently total marine catches has been around two and a half million ton annually. More than two third are from the Gulf of Thailand and the rest from the Andaman Sea. Due to over fishing and fishery resource degradation, the catches have been stagnant. The not being decreasing in reported catches can be explained by those catches from non-Thai waters, landed in Thailand. The leading catch volume has been pelagic fish, followed by trash fish and demersal fish. Other catches i.e. Other food fish, squid and cuttlefish, shrimp, crab, mollusc and other (mainly jellyfish) are small. For pelagic catches in Thai fishing grounds main species are anchovy, Indo-Pacific mackerel, sardine and scad. For demersal fish main species were big eye, threadfin bream, lizard fish and crocker. Beside pelagic fish, trash fish, demersal fish, and other food fish; there are shrimp, squid & cuttlefish, crab, mollusc, and others. Important species for each subgroup are as follows. For shrimp the most shrimp catches are other shrimp (other than the name list for shrimp). Mostly found are banana shrimp and school prawn, together with sergistid shrimp. For crab, the most important one in term of quantity is swimming crab. Squid and octopus are main species in this group. For mollusc, main species is short necked clam. Jellyfish was the main species for the others.

It was estimated that not less than one-third of the catches as reported are catches from non-Thai fishing ground landed in domestic fishing ports. Fishery resource degradation especially in the Gulf of Thailand has resulted in lower fishing effort in the Gulf. Large vessels of 18 meter long and over have been fishing in non-Thai fishing ground, in near by coastal states and others including EEZ of those coastal states along Indian Ocean Coastlines and the Atlantic Ocean in the south.

7There is not any foreign fleet fishing in Thai waters.

8

Presentation of main fish chains

About 80% of the total landings come from industrial/commercial fisheries. For the 20% artisanal landings, most of them are for local consumption and traditional processing (fish sauce, salted, steamed/smoked, shrimp paste and others including fish ball/cracker). These catches are sold through local fish mongers. Commercial catches are mainly for exported, being frozen and canned. Details are given in following flow chart.

Table 1: Flows of fish from production to processing (live weight equivalent)

Production Processing Means of transportation Final market

Domestic artisanal production

527 thou. t/year

Local fishmonger

527 thou.. t/year

Local means of transportation (car, bike, etc.)

298 thou.t/year

National market

1,746 thou. t/year

Foreign artisanal production None

Local fishmonger in neighbouring countries

None

Long distance means of transportation (truck, train)

1,448 thou t/year

ASEAN

142 thou.t/year

Domestic industrial production

2,109 thou. t/year

Domestic traditional processing

229 thou. t/year

Airplane

None

USA

161 thou thou.t/year

Foreign chartered vessels’ production

None

Fresh and Unprocessed

604 thou.t/year

Cargo vessel

422 thou. t/year

EU

89 thou t/year

EU* vessels production

None

Frozen, canned, fish meal, and storage

1,276 thou. t/year

Frozen Cargo vessels

468 thou. t/year

Japan

196 thou.t/year

Production of other foreign vessel under agreement

None

On board processing

None

Exports without landing in the country

None

Rest of the world

302 thou.t/year

9

Synthesis presentation of all métiers

Pech diagram by Francis Laloe for all metiers in the Gulf of Thailand is given below.

10

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Identification of major métiers

In the Pech Diagram by Francis Laloe fisheries in Thailand have been divided into eight métiers including trawlers, purse seiners, gill netters, other gill netters, liners, stationary gears, collecting, and other fishing. Aquaculture is also included as the ninth métier in the diagram. For trawlers, fleets in this métier are otter board trawl, pair trawl and beam trawl, For purse seiners there are purse seines for various pelagic fishing and anchovy purse seine. For gill netters there are mackerel gillnet, mullet gill net, pomfret gill net, shrimp trammel net, crab gill net, squid trammel net and other gill nets mainly for pelagic fishing. Other netters include squid falling net, other cast net, hand push net, push net, and other moving gears. Liners include long line and hand line and pole line. Stationary gears include set bag net, fish trap, crab trap, squid trap, bamboo stake trap, and other stationary gears. Collecting has only collecting in this métier. For culture there are fish culture, shrimp culture, and shellfish culture. In total there are 32 gears. Species included in the diagram are 62. For pelagic fish there are 17 species: Indo-pacific mackerel, Indian mackerel, king mackerel, wolf herring, longtail tuna, bonito, round scad, hardtail scad, trevelly, big-eye scad, black-banded, threadfin, sardine, anchovy, mullet, black pomfret, and silver promfret. For demersal fish there are 18 species: barracuda, crocker, threadfin bream, monocle bream, lizard fish, hair tail, red snapper, giant seaperch, big-eye, sand whiting, barbel eel, marine catfish, ray, shark, flatfish, Indian halibut, conger eel, and grouper. There are also other food fish and trash fish. Other food fish are those for human consumption. Trash fish are low value catches mainly used as fish meal, not for human consumption. They are mainly caught by trawlers. For shrimp and prawn, there are 10 species: banana shrimp, jumbo tiger prawn, tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon), white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei), king prawn, school prawn, other shrimp, flathead lobster, mantis, and acetes. For crab, there are 3 species: swimming crab, mud crab, and other crab. For cephalopods, there are also 3 species: squid, cuttlefish and octopus. For shellfish there are 6 species: bloody cockle, green mussel, oyster, short necked clam, scallop, and other shellfish. Others are jelly fish and others.

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Main metiers selected

Table 2: synthesis table presenting the relevance of case study selection regarding ecology, economy and sociology Case study No

Fleet Gears Species Ecology Economy Sociology

C1 Trawlers Otter board trawl

Trash fish

By catches of economic juveniles resulting in fishery resource degradation

Trawler is the main fleet. Fishing vessels accounted for 1/3 of the total.

In this fleet otter board trawl is the main gear. 60% of trawlers are otter board trawls.

Catches from otter board trawls accounted for 45% of total catches from the Gulf of Thailand.

Large vessels earned high income form the past taking the advantage of abundant resources.

Small vessels suffering from present resource degradation.

C2 Purse seiners

Anchovy purse seiners

Anchovy

Using fine mesh size thus by catches of juvenile economic species resulting in fishery resource degradation.

Purse seiner catches accounted for more than 1/3 of total catches from the Gulf of Thailand, being next to trawlers.

Catches from anchovy purse seines were the main catches in this fleet accounted for more than 1/5 of total catches from the Gulf of Thailand, or being nearly ¾ of purse seiner catches which were mainly pelagic fish.

Catches were mainly for export.

Impact of fishery resource degradation on small scale coastal fisheries, a conflict in fishery resource utilization.

Description of trawlers (Case study: Otter board trawl in trawler fleet, Gulf of Thailand)

Production Profiles

Trawlers, the main fishing fleet in Thailand. Otter board trawl is the main fishing gear in this fleet as well as in Thailand. In term of total registered vessels, otter board trawl shared 30%. In term of catch in the Gulf of Thailand otter board trawl shared 44%, highest among the fishing gears in Thailand. Otter board trawl is a demersal fishing gear. 36% of the catches are demersal fish (mainly big eyes, threadfin bream, lizard fish, crocker, red snapper, and ray). 33% are trash fish including low quality catches not for human consumption and juveniles of economic species caught as by catches. 10% are pelagic fish (mainly Indo-pacific mackerel, king mackerel, and trevally) 9% are cephalopod (mainly squid and cuttlefish), 7% other food fish, 4% shrimp, and 1% crab.

Geographical area

Source: www.encarta.msn.com

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Seasonality and fishing period

Setting the average monthly catch as 100, seasonality index is given below

Table 3: Seasonality index of trawler fleet catches (Average monthly catches = 100) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Pair trawl

114

105

97

95

105

103

103

105

107

105

81

80

Beam trawl

152

96

30

30

104

220

152

125

151

51

-

87

Otter board trawl

103

101

117

90

108

109

98

111

76

111

73

102

-50

-

50

100

150

200

250

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Pair trawl Beam Trawl Otter board trawl

Figure 7: Seasonality index of trawler catches (Average monthly catch = 100)

Source: Calculated from Department of Fisheries survey data.

Otter board trawl catches and pair trawl catches have similar pattern. For otter board trawl the highest catches are in March (117) and lowest in November (73). For pair trawl the highest is in January (114) and lowest in December. Beam trawl catches are small but highly fluctuated being highest in June (220) and lowest in November when coastal fishing is closed.

Volume and values of catches over the decade.

Nearly 70% of trawler catches are from the Gulf of Thailand. The main catches are from otter board trawl. The peak catch was in 1995, 954 th t, and decreased to 794 th t in 1998. The otter board trawl catches increased again in 1999 but the trend has been decreasing in the last five years. Catches from pair trawl were lower than 200 th t before 2000 but increased to over 200 th t starting in 2000. Nevertheless the increase can be explained by the catches outside Thai waters, landed in the Gulf of Thailand.. Beam trawl catches are minimal and tend to decrease. For catch composition, main catches are demersal fish and trash fish at about one-third each

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Table 4: Volume and value of trawler catches , Gulf of Thailand, 1995-2004 Gear/Year 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004Volume (th t) Otter board trawl

954 937 908 794 894 909 858 872 838 795

Pair trawl 188 170 159 161 178 218 278 255 264 239 Beam trawl 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 2 1 Value (mill.EU$) Otter board trawl

283 290 289 471 293 413 360 421 425 407

Pair trawl 43 41 39 42 46 62 77 76 82 79 Beam trawl 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 4 4 2 Source: Department of Fisheries

Fishing units

About 40% of total registered fishing vessels in Thailand are trawlers, consisting of 30% otter board trawl, 9% pair trawl, and 1% beam trawl. The number of registered fishing vessels in 2004 was 16,432 of which there were 4,896 otter board trawl, 1,410 pair trawl, and 133 beam trawl. The number has been decreasing. Due to less resource abundance and low return from trawling many trawl fishermen stopped fishing. As reported in the Marine Fishery Census, one-fourth of otter board trawl and nearly one-tenth of pair trawl have been fishing outside Thai waters Number of registered trawlers is given in the figure below.

-1,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,0007,0008,000

Pair trawl Beam trawl Otter board trawl

Pair trawl 1,843 1,804 1,820 1,734 1,682 1,640 1,544 1,634 1,410

Beam trawl 289 195 291 149 172 152 179 143 133

Otter board trawl 6,840 6,886 7,050 6,441 6,154 4,897 4,952 5,172 4,896

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Figure 8 Number of registered trawlers by fishing gears, 1996 - 2004

Source: Department of Fisheries

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Fish chain profile

Table 5: Flows of fish from production to processing for trawler fleet in the Gulf of Thailand (live weight equivalent)

Production Processing Means of transportation Final market

Local

fishmonger

2 th. t/year

Local means of transportation (car, bike, etc.)

2 th.t/year

National market

768 th.t/year

Local fishmonger in neighbouring countries

None

Long distance means of transportation (truck, train)

766 th. t/year

Neighbouring countries (ASEAN)

43 th.t/year

Domestic

traditional processing, canned, and fish meal processing

454 th.t/year

Airplane

None

USA

48 th.t/year

Fresh and Unprocessed

370 th.t/year

Cargo vessel

183 th.t/year

EU

27 th.t/year

Frozen and storage

209 th.t/year

Frozen Cargo vessels

84 th.t/year

Japan

59 th.t/year

Trawler fleet production

1,035 th. t/year

On board processing

None

Exports without landing in the country

None

Rest of the world (China, Australia, Middle East)

90 th.t/year

16

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Processing types

Catches from trawler are mainly demersal fish followed trash fish which consists of low value not suitable for human consumption and young juvenile economic species by catches which if have been left to grow to marketable size they can earned better price. Fish, dermersal as well as pelagic from trawlers, are considered inferior quality. Catches from small trawlers can be sold through local fish mongers for local consumption. Some are sold through fish marketing channels for domestic consumption, as well as for export as frozen are sold the canneries for further processing. White fish meat can be sold for surimi processing, mainly exported to Japan. Some of them are sold for traditional processing including fish sauce, dried, salted, steamed, smoked, and shrimp paste. Trash fish are sold for fish meal processing, accounting for nearly 40% of the total live weight catches from trawlers in the Gulf of Thailand.

Employment

Fish processing in Thailand as classified by type of processing consists of 181 cold storages, 49 canneries, 204 fish sauce processors, 37 steaming, 17 smoking, 1,275 salting/drying, 95 fish meal plants, 69 fish cake/surimi processors, and 174 other processors. Estimated number of workers is not less than two hundred thousand leading to and estimated 0.3 person/tonne of processed fish.

Market types

23% of the landings are for fresh consumption, mainly sold in the local markets. Commercial processing includes 22% frozen, 20% canned, 26% fish meal processing and the rest .9% are for tradition processing. About a quarter of total landings are for exports. There are various landing points in Thailand, public and private. Fish Market Organization runs three main piers along the inner Gulf of Thailand and fifteen landing piers along the coastline. There are more than three hundred private landing points, scattering along the coastlines. From this piers and land points, beside the local markets catches are transported to the main wholesale markets as well as directly to the processing plants.

Fresh/chilled catches are sold in the fresh market as well as supermarkets in modern retail trade sector. Frozen catches are mainly for export and those for domestic consumption have a similar flow as the fresh/chilled catches. Canned seafood are exported as well as sold domestically through the supermarkets and groceries. Trash fish are sold for fish meal. From the fish meal plant they can be sold domestically for animal feed producers as well as exported, mainly to Asian countries.

Main export markets for seafood from Thailand are Japan (22% of total export volume), the United States (18%), ASEAN (16%), and European Union (10%).

Main flows of the catches from landing to processing and consumption are given in Table 5.

Means of transportation

In the country catches from landing points are mostly transported by cold storage trucks to the main wholesale markets and the processing plants. For those sold locally trucks with ice-boxes are also found. For domestic consumption for frozen

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products there are cold storage trucks. Those sold to modern retail trade sector will be transported by distribution center large truck well equipped with storage facilities. At the village level, outside the modern sector trade, often found are four-wheel pick up trucks.

Exports of frozen food are transported by frozen cargo vessel. Others are by cargo vessels.

Employment

Number of persons per ton of fish marketed is estimated to be 0.2.

Description of purse seiner fleet (Case study 2: Anchovy purse seine in purse seiner fleet,Gulf of Thailand.) Production profile

Purse seiner is the main fishing fleet for pelagic catches. Fishing gears in this fleet are purse seines for various pelagic fish and anchovy purse seine targeted only for anchovy, thus using fine mesh size to catch small fish. Among pelagic catches by this fleet, anchovy catch is the highest. In 2004, it was 129 th t or about 22% of purse seiner catches from the Gulf of Thailand. Other catches by purse seines are other 15 pelagic species and other food fish. Anchovy catches from the fishing ground other than Gulf of Thailand was only 24 th t in 2004. Thus the main fishing ground for anchovy is the Gulf of Thailand.

Geographical area

For this case study the selected fishing ground is the same as the otter board trawler case study, being the Gulf of Thailand. Landing sites are the coastal areas where there are anchovy purse seine fishing including Trat, Rayong, Chanthaburi, and Chonburi in the east; Prajuab, Chumporn, and Surat in the upper south; and Songkhla and Pattani in the lower south.

Seasonality and fishing period

Seasonality index of catches by purse seine and anchovy purse seine are given in Table 6. The patterns are similar. Catches are lower than the average during January – April. During May – September they are higher than the average. After that catches fall again. Lowest catch of anchovy purse seine is in November and highest in July. For purse seine the lowest catch is in December and highest in June and August.

Table 6 Seasonality index of purse seine catches (Monthly average = 100) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecPurse seine

86 91 99 81 109 118 110 118 115 97 91 84

Anchovy purse seine

85 82 85 78 110 120 146 121 128 100 67 79

020406080

100120140160

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Purse seine Anchovy purse seine

Source: Calculated from Department of Fishereis data.

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Volume and values of catches over the last decade

In term of volume, anchovy purse seine shared about 1/5 of the catches in this fleet while in term of value the share has been rising to about ¼ recently due to the better price through the years. By volume purse seine catches fluctuated more than anchovy purse seine. This was partly due to fishing outside Thai water with the landing in the Gulf of Thailand. Anchovy purse seine catches were totally from the Gulf of Thailand. After a fall during 1996 – 1999, the catches picked up and tend to increase since then. In term of value catches from both gears had been increasing during early 2000s due to the better price.

Table 7: Volume and values of purse seiner catches 1995-2004 Gear/Year 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004Volume (th t) Purse seine

509 454 420 419 442 420 397 413 424 466

Anchovy purse seine

112 111 107 108 98 109 106 109 131 129

Value (mill.EU$) Purse seine

125 116 114 130 131 121 121 135 132 137

Anchovy purse seine

14 11 9 10 11 12 12 14 25 34

Fishing units

Numbers of registered fishing vessels for purse seine and anchovy purse seine moved together before 2000. In 2000 number of purse seine fishing vessels fell while anchovy purse seine vessels increased. After that, the number of purse seine vessel increased while number of anchovy purse seine vessel tended to decrease. The increase in purse seine vessels can be explained by fishing outside Thai waters. In 2004 the number of purse seine vessels was 1,355 while it was 344 for anchovy purse seine vessels.

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

1,600

Purse seine 905 999 966 1,138 990 1,071 1,260 1,313 1,355

Anchovy purse seine 422 503 323 416 514 378 426 324 344

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Figure 9 Number of registered purse seiners by fishing gears, 1996 - 2004

Source: Department of Fisheries

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Fish chain profile

Table 6: Flows of fish from production to processing for purse seiner fleet (live weight equivalent)

Production Processing Means of transportation Final market

Local

fishmonger

53 th t/year

Local means of transportation (car, bike, etc.)

162 th t/year

National market

535 th t/year

21

Local fishmonger in neighbouring countries

None

Long distance means of transportation (truck, train)

393 th t/year

ASEAN

42 th t/year

Domestic

traditional, canned, fish meal processing

369 th t/year

Airplane

None

USA

25 th t/year

Fresh and

Unprocessed

113 th t/year

Cargo vessel

115 th t/year

EU

14 th t/year

Frozen and

storage

140 th t/year

Frozen Cargo vessels

25 th.t/year

Japan

31 th t/year

Purse seiner production

695 th t/year

On board processing

20 th t/year

Exports without landing in the country

None

Rest of the world

48 th t/year

22

Processing types

Catches from purse seine fleet are mainly pelagic fish. Anchovy purse seiner targeted on anchovy using fine mesh size. Catch from other purse seiners can be processed as frozen, canned, and traditional processing including dried, steamed/smoked, salted. Anchovies are processed as dried, boiled dried, and fish sauce. Limited amount are also processed as boiled for being dried onshore in large anchovy purse seiners.

Employment

0.25 person/ton of processed fish.

Market types Since most of the purse seiners are commercial fishing, catches are sold through fish marketing system. After landing there will be fish agents responsible for the distribution through fresh market, frozen, canned, and others. Those sold through local monger are small relatively to the fish agents. Of the total purse seine catches, most i.e. 53% are sold for canning and other processing beside frozen, including small amount of fish meal. Anchovy processing is included in this category. Next 20% is for frozen, followed by 16% fresh consumption. Anchovy processed on board is estimated to be around 3%. The rest 8% are sold through local fishmonger. These are mainly catches from small fishing vessels.

Flows of fish from processing to market The catches are mainly for national market i.e.77%., and the rest are export. Main market is ASEAN countries sharing 6% of total purse seine landings. More than half of anchovies are sold to this market especially Malaysia. Second most important export market is Japan sharing 4%. The increasing export to this market is surimi, the fish meat for further processing. The United States is the third export market sharing 3%, importing mainly canned seafood similar to the European Union sharing 2%. Export to the rest of the world in total, sharing 8% is greater than those to ASEAN. Important market is China, importing frozen fish

Means of transportation

Main means of transportation is long distance vehicles. For frozen, there are cold storage trucks. For others there are ten-wheel and six-wheel trucks. 56% of the landings are transported by long distance trucks. 24% are transported by local means mainly four-wheel pick up trucks and motor cycles. These are for those sold through local fishmongers and those for local consumption. The share of cargo vessels is 16% and those of frozen cargo is 4%, for exports.

Employment

Number of persons per ton of fish marketed is estimated to be 0.2.

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Brief description of the national context

GDP from the fishing sector accounted for less than 2 % in total GDP, being not less than 2,750 mill EU$ recently. Exports of primary fishery products shared almost 2% in total export value being Contribution of fishing sector to national economy, being almost 3,520 mill EU$ while to import was about 1,000 mill EU$. Thailand had a net trade gain in fisheries, being one of the most important fish export country. Never the less the main foreign exchange earning was shrimp, mainly from culture not capture while the next most important was canned tuna, mainly relying on imported frozen tuna for raw materials. In term of food security, fishery products accounted for 10% of total food consumption.

Department of Fisheries in the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives is responsible for national fishery management. The department is responsible for marine capture and culture as well as freshwater capture and culture.

The Royal Decree in 1949 put the emphasis on preserving the fishery resources for domestic producers, limiting the foreign investment. For marine fishery management the emphasis was on renewing fishery resource abundance. The most successful one is the closed seasons and closed areas along the upper south coastlines and Andaman coastlines during spawning season. Nevertheless the main problem of Thai fisheries has been over fishing since the development of otter board trawler. Decreasing catch per unit effort in the Gulf of Thailand had been noticed since early 1960s. Recommendation was reduction in fishing effort, but has never been successful. Due to resource degradation, a number of trawlers had been fishing outside Thai waters. Recently Department of Fisheries in collaboration with FAO has put the effort on reducing fishing capacity in trawlers in push netters which are considered destructive fishing gears in the Gulf of Thailand.

Trawlers and push netters are banned within coastal areas, i.e. 3 km from shorelines. Nevertheless due to long coastlines of over 2,600 km, this regulation has been very effective. Limited number of push netters is legally registered as there has been effort on control of this fishing effort. Nevertheless, there are push netters scattering along the coastlines of the Gulf of Thailand.

There is a control on the mesh size. Nevertheless in practice the mesh size is smaller than legally allowed. In case of anchovy fishing, mesh size is small to catch the small anchovy leading to conflict with other fisheries since there are a number of juvenile economic species caught by anchovy fishing.

Recently the government put more effort on increasing capacity among coastal fishing villages in community-based/co-management fishery management favoring the uplifting fishing condition for coastal small scale fishermen.

There are limited fishing subsidies in Thailand due to the problems in capacity reduction. To help the coastal small scale coastal fishermen who do not have alternatives other than fishing in Thai waters and to lessen the impact of increasing oil price, the government arranged for lower cost fuel. Nevertheless the price is lowered due to relaxation on import tax on imported gasoline, not a direct subsidy. Other assistances to fishermen are focused on strengthening coastal fishing village capacity in their fishery resource management.

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There has not been trade measure against importing fishery products. Nevertheless Thai fishery products have difficulties in fishery exports to various country of destination. Mostly sanitary and phyto sanitary (SPS) measures.