January 10, 2005

 

 

Thai Seaside Districts Sees Seafood Supplies Fall By 90%

 

Seafood supplies in Takua Pa district in Thailand¡¯s southern beach area have dropped by 90% since the Dec 26 tidal waves, says the district's fisheries office.

 

The tsunami devastated almost 500 coastal fishing boats, 80 trawlers and more than 10 fishing piers. The district's major fishing communities, including Ban Nam Khem, Laem Pakarang, Bang Niang, were obliterated, said Pornchai Theppichai, the district's fisheries officer.

 

Villagers' fish breeding baskets were swept away by the waves as well.

 

Takua Pa is a major fish supplier for vendors and residents of Phangnga, Phuket, Trang, Krabi and Surat Thani provinces.

 

Normally, about 100 tonnes of fish, shrimp and squid are caught each day. Few fishing ships were now in any condition to put to sea, resulting in a decline of marine produce.

 

Mr Pornchai said that bringing the fishing business back to life again would take about six months.

 

The government's compensation scheme for affected fishermen, he said, was definitely too low.

 

Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob had announced earlier that owners of small vessels wrecked by the waves would get 20,000 baht and large vessels 200,000 baht.

 

Small fishing boats, which ply coastal areas, cost about 80,000 baht each, while large fishing vessels cost more than one million baht, said Mr Pornchai.

 

The Fisheries Department has been registering fishermen who lost assets in the waves.

 

Some fishermen, who have been untouched by the tidal destruction had resumed fishing, but many people refused to eat fish caught in Phangnga.

 

'This is because consumers and merchants fear that the fish, shrimp and other marine life in these areas might have consumed the remains of tsunami victims swept out to sea. So many are opting to buy fish from the nearby provinces instead.

 

Montha Sukamkaew, a fish merchant at a fresh market in Takua Pa, said she usually sold up to 300 kilograms of seafood a day, but was currently selling less than 100kg.

 

After the tsunami, fish vendors had to buy fish from nearby Kura Buri district or other provinces, such as Surat Thani on the Gulf of Thailand.

 

Chalee Klatha-le, 32, a coastal fisherman from Ban Nam Khem, said local fisherman could catch up to 20kg a day, worth about 1,000 baht. Mr Chalee's 80,000-baht fishing boat was destroyed by the waves.

 

The government should move quickly to pay compensation because January was the start of the fishing season, he said.

 

''The Andaman sea is probably teeming because thousands of fishing boats have stopped fishing in the past two weeks,'' he said.