A Bill of the amendment to the Fisheries Act has been approved by the Cabinet with the purposes to mitigate difficulties in the fishery sector and promote the efficient fishery practices.
In accordance with this proposed amendment, the major changes are underlying in an issue of the impact to more than 600,000 coastal small-scale fishing households in 20 provinces and promoting the sustainable practices. However, this issue had been previously introduced in 2017, regarding the illegal, unreported, and unregulated (“IUU”) fishing practices. Also, this new change will only be imposed on Thai nationals only, including local fisheries registration. Punishments will be imposed on the persons and the licenses will be revoked. It also allows small fisheries to transfer the license for vessels of under 10 tons to their descendants, which was previously prohibited in the current regulation. The proposed amendment to the Fisheries Act is still under the reviewing stage to ensure that it complies with the international regulations.