Thailand’s ‘seafood task force’ and Charoen Pokphand Foods (CP Foods) are backing a plan to develop sustainable fishing gears and improve a monitoring process, in a bid to aid the fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU).
The company has collaborated with the department of fisheries, ministry of agriculture, and cooperatives of Thailand to set up a working committee for exploring new fishing technologies and innovations to combat IUU, said CP Foods’ Sujint Thammasart, chief operating officer in the aquaculture business.
The committee comprises of several parties including government agencies, associations, academia, and private sectors to develop a sustainable fishing platform for the Thai seafood industry.
Thailand will also support a joint statement from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The international organizations are calling all sectors to work together to end the exploitation of laborers who work in the industry.
A delegation of Thai fishermen, vessel owners, government officials, academics and CP Foods representatives recently visited Brixham, one of the busiest fishing ports in the UK, to gather information about sustainable fishing practices and innovations such as larger mesh sizes to allow juvenile fish to escape, as well as balloon trawl that could be applied to the fishing industry in Thailand.
The visit resulted in Thailand deploying a UK-style vessel monitoring system in its own fishery; the system has been used to identify unusual fishing activities by tracking data from the vessels, as well as working conditions and wages.
Source: Undercurrent News
Photo credit: CP Foods
