National report of preliminary investigation to estimate the abandon, lost, and discard gillnet and trap (pots) along the coast of Thailand (Phang Nga and Krabi province)

Abandoned, Lost, or otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG) is widely recognized as a significant component of marine litter and has serious impacts on habitats, fish stocks, and other marine species. The Southeast Asian regional concern on marine debris including ALDFG has been raised in SEAFDEC Meetings. Therefore, SEAFDEC Training Department conducted a preliminary investigation to estimate the loss of gillnet and traps (pots) along the Coast of Thailand with support from FAO. One hundred and sixty (160) questionnaires were collected from 3 surveys conducted in Phang Nga and Krabi Province, Andaman Sea, Thailand. Results show that the estimated total trap loss is 5,154 traps/year with an associated economic loss of 64,805.08 USD/year. The estimated loss of gillnets is 458.50 units/year with an estimated associated economic loss of 13,467.14 USD/year. The main cause of the gillnet loss is nets becoming snagged on an obstruction, and the main cause of the trap (pot) loss is conflict with other gears. Researchers recommend expanding the survey to all coastal provinces of Thailand, both in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, and applying it to both small-scale and commercial-scale fisheries. The result could provide guidance for the development of management actions to reduce levels of ALDFG in the future

Efficiency Comparison of Circle Hook versus J-Hook in Pelagic Longline Fishery, Andaman Sea

The FAO Guidelines specified that longline fishery must develop and implement combinations of hook design, type of bait, depth, gear specification, and fishing practices that minimize sea turtle bycatch, incidental catch, and mortality (FAO, 2005). Hook modifications in particular are expected to be one of the most effected tolls in reducing incidental sea turtle mortality. Take into account on the geo-topographic features in the Southeast Asia waters, about 60% of the sea water areas identify as deep sea where the sea is deeper than 200 m, for examples, in the Andaman Sea, South China Sea, Sulu Sea, Celebes Sea, Eastern Indian Ocean, Banda Sea, Sulawesi Sea., highly migratory species such as tunas, tuna like species, billfishes and others are classified as highly migratory species. It is expected that those large pelagic species existed in the region are still resources. SEAFDEC therefore proposed to conduct the fishing experiment base information collection in many sea areas namely Andaman Sea, the South China Sea and Sulu Sea of member countries’ EEZ. A series of field surveys has been carried out accordingly in collaboration with the SEAFDEC member countries using SEAFDEC Research vessel M.V.SEAFDEC and M.V.SEAFDEC

Efficiency Comparison between Conventional and Vented Trap in Ghost Fishing Experiment, Si Racha Bay, Gulf of Thailand

raps are an effective and economically important multi-species fishing gear used widely for harvesting crustaceans and finfish around the world. The collapsible trap targeting blue swimming crab (Portunus pelagicus) has recently becomes a major type of fishing gear and operated over year in the Gulf of Thailand. Small scale fishers operate their traps inshore with the numbers of 200-300 traps/boat while commercial scale fishers operate further (offshore) with the numbers of 2,000-5,000 traps onboard. Both fishing types have possibilities become lost or derelict as a result of several processes. Lost traps are widely thought to result in mortality because of “ghost fishing” a term used to describe the process by which derelict fishing gear continues to trap organisms and induce mortality in an uncontrolled manner (Matsuoka et al. 2005). The phenomenon of ghost fishing is a concern to fisheries managers and the fishing community interested in long term sustainability of the trap fishery. The ghost fishing effects on the blue swimming crab and other animals from the trap fishing in Thailand have been very poor evaluated and reported. Accordingly, the objectives of this study were to examine the ghost fishing characteristics of the conventional trap used by small scale fishers compared to the vented trap. Specifically, the rates of entrance and mortality of the target species and the by–catch species were assessed and compared between both trap types

The Survey of Fish Enhancing Devices (FEDs) at the Coastal Areas of Thailand

Coastal waters of Southeast Asia are blessed with high productivity of fisheries resources because of rich ecosystems such as dense mangrove forests and sea grass beds, as well as extensive coral reefs with clean tropical sea environment. These areas are critical to a broad range of aquatic organisms during their life cycle from breeding, spawning, nursing and growing, hosting the feeding zones of aquatic species that are economically important, and serving as important source of recruitment of a wide diversity of fishery resources. However, commercially important fishery resources in the region have declined due to many factors that include overfishing, illegal fishing, use of destructive fishing practices, and environmental degradation. The artificial reef has been the significant tool for fishing ground development and increasing fisheries production of the small scale fisheries. However, regarding the cost of artificial reef installation has high investment and managed by government agencies. Fishers only involve in the identification of fishing ground. The fishers' ownership on fishing ground could not be generated as well as management through community approaches has not been able to promote effectively. One of the SEAFDEC’s missions is to seek for the appropriate tools to enhance coastal fishery resources together with awareness building on the community management as well as promoting a shifting of resources user to be resource manager through the installation of Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) that costs cheaper investment than artificial reef. SEAFDEC has promoted the new design of Fish Enhancing Device (FEDs) since year 2009 and Thailand was reported as the first to introduce the use of FEDs. Until now, the utilization of FEDs in Thailand has widely spread throughout the coastal province of Thailand and is used in various designs. In order to update the information on the structure and design of FEDs and to seek for the significant factors of FEDs construction and design that different between local and fishing ground. Thus, SEAFDEC/TD in cooperation with Department of Fisheries, Thailand conducte