Trawlers to get new lease on life

Despite the devastation trawlers have caused for decades and the global shame Thailand has suffered from their use of slave labour, trawlers are set to return to ravage the Thai seas with a vengeance. Ironically, this comeback is not driven by the old guard but by a political party that has captured liberals’ hopes with promises to usher in reform on all fronts.

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Two years ago, the People’s Party or Prachachon Party sponsored an amendment to the Fishery Act, aiming to relax strict rules on commercial trawlers. Its rationale: the top-down rules issued by the military junta are dictatorial and must be revoked.

That reactionist reasoning is flimsy if not ludicrous. For decades, trawlers not only swept Thai seas clean with destructive fishing, but they also roamed international waters illegally with slave labour on board.

Nothing was done to stop them due to trawlers’ connections with powerful officials and politicians. But the damage was so severe that in 2015 the European Union and the United States threatened to impose trade and economic sanctions on Thailand.

Any government would have to reform the fishery sector to avert export disaster. The tighter rules of the past decade helped the Thai seas to recover. This is about to change for the worse.

Other parties, longtime allies of trawler tycoons, eagerly support the opposition-sponsored bill. In December last year, House members passed the draft law giving the trawler industry what it wants. It weakens surveillance, reduces worker protection, allows possibilities for child labour and permits ships to transfer catch at sea, making illegal fishing easier to hide.