The new equipment being tested by the navy includes a GPS tracking system to monitor fishing vessels, a central database and a scanner for officials to check documents. The system won’t be fully implemented until April 2017.
According to Phys.Org, the system was demonstrated to reporters this week with a live inspection demonstration that had Thai sailors boarding a vessel while workers crouched and huddled together, holding up green identification cards. The sailors proceeded to look through documents and pat down the workers.
While the demonstration looked impressive, many outside groups are skeptical that the system will achieve what it is supposed to do unless more human enforcement is put into place. Thailand has been under pressure from the European Union after it was revealed that fisheries relied heavily on slave labor. Thailand is facing a total EU ban on seafood imports unless it cleans up the industry.
“We’re doing this to increase the effectiveness of inspection because putting humans in the loop has caused some errors in the past,” said Cdr. Piyanan Kaewmanee, head of the Thai navy group that oversees illegal fishing, reports CTV News Canada. He pointed to corrupt officials as a major issue. “We can ensure that our workers are accounted for, and aren’t lost at sea or transferred from ship to ship.”
National Plan of Action against IUU Fishing
The demonstration of the monitoring system is part of Thailand’s Fisheries Management Plan that has been two years in the making. Scanners will be integrated into a vessel monitoring system that will keep track of all fishing vessels.
Speaking at the “Asia Regional Conference on Building Ocean Health: Sharing experience to move towards sustainable fisheries management” in Seoul last month, Agriculture Minister Chatchai Sarikulya outlined Thailand’s efforts in combating illegal fisheries
“In the past two years, the prime minister and all involved have dedicated themselves to solving the problems and have seriously fought against IUU fishing and made great efforts to safeguard workers from labor abuses,” he explained.
The agricultural minister said the “Thai fleet database and the Monitor, Control and Surveillance – or MCS – system, including Port-in Port-out Control and the Vessel Monitoring System, stand ready to monitor vessel behavior.”
Yes, the technology sounds like it will be very helpful in monitoring fishing vessels and making sure people are not being brought into the country as forced labor, but Jason Judd, a senior technical officer at the International Labor Organization office in Bangkok says Thailand will still need to put more muscle into the labor laws.
Judd pointed out that, “Technology can help us to develop that, but really it’s not a substitute for what’s needed most, which is a face-to-face interaction between those who are responsible for enforcing the law—the Thai government—and the fishermen.”
The EU is sending officials on a visit to Thailand next month to see what progress has been made, following up on a visit made in January this year.
