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Flood of new boats following tsunami depletes fish stocks

Published on December 18, 2005 - Over-zealous aid agencies built too many new boats.

In an ironic twist of fate, fish stocks are being depleted as a consequence of the tsunami last year. Hit hard by the giant swells on December 26, they’re now being ravaged once again by an over-abundance of brand new fleets of fishing boats.

New fishing boats dot the Andaman Sea as relief agencies concentrate on supplying tsunami stricken fishing communities with vessels rather than other aid.

“Too many boats are competing for too few fish,” says fisherman Manit Komsan from Ranong’s Suksamran subdistrict. “Being post-tsunami fisherman, you can no longer grab a few more minutes in bed. If you get out there after the sun rises, there will be no space in the sea for you to set your traps. Every square metre of the sea is full of new boats.”

Fishing boats and equipment are one of the most popular forms of aid offered by many relief organisations and individuals to tsunami-wrecked villages on the Andaman Sea. However, the boats did not only go to those who lost their own in the disaster but to many who had never owned a boat in their lives. As a result, many areas are overcrowded with boats, and stocks are suffering.

“There were about 100 boats in my village before the tsunami,” Manit recalls. “That number has now increased to nearly 400. They also have new fishing gear to comb for fish, crabs and shrimp in this little bay in front of Baan Tha Klang village.”

Manit’s Baan Tha Klang is not alone. A similar scenario is unfolding in many other fishing communities in the six Andaman provinces. On the small island of Koh Lhao, only eight of some 200 Morgan sea gypsies owned fishing boats before the tsunami. Now nearly 70 boats are floating in the sea around the island thanks to aid organisations.

Adul Sangsin, a fisherman of Baan Taa Siea in Trang province, says he is worried that if aid-relief groups continue to give boats to fishing communities it will lead to conflicts among small-scale fishermen. His village has 20 additional boats donated to people after the tsunami.

“Prior to the tsunami, villagers fished on a self-sufficiency basis,” says Adul, who is also deputy sec?retary of the Federation of Southern Small-scale Fishermen (FSSF), a network of fishing communities in 13 provinces on the Andaman Sea. “But now they have new boats and gear, and many want to catch more fish. Some are going further out to sea to areas where big commercial fishing boats operate.”
Adul is afraid the available marine resources will not sustain so many small-scale fishermen.

“This is giving me a headache. Before, small-scale fishermen fought against commercial fish?ing boats to maintain our rights, but now I’m afraid we small-scale fishermen will also fight one another,” he says.

According to the Geo-Information and Space Technology Development Agency, the tsunami damaged 406 small fishing villages and destroyed about 4,700 fishing boats. The despair of the fisher?men attracted many relief agen?cies which undertook to repair and build boats for the villagers, and dockyards proliferated in the six provinces in the subsequent nine months.

A rough estimate by the Fishery Department shows that more than 24,400 boats have been replaced or repaired. The relief group Save Andaman Network (SAN) is listed as pro?viding the largest number of boats.

Buncha Pongpanich, SAN’s chairperson, says the group has handed over 1,500 new fishing boats, built by its 30 dockyards. Buncha says he realises overfish?ing could occur but claims his group is not contributing to the problem.

“We have a system to check that the boats are distributed to fishermen who lost their boats to the tsunami. We don’t distribute them to those who have never had a boat,” he says.

Among the groups providing aid is American Relief Camp (ARC), a non-governmental organisation from the United States, which, as of August, has given 200 boats to fishermen through its Fishing Boat Project, which received US$1 million (Bt40.9 million) from two former US presidents, George Bush and Bill Clinton. Other groups include ActionAids, SOS Foundation of Thailand, the Chaipattana Foundation and World Vision Foundation, as well as individuals.

Jongrak Petchkomol, whose tourism business on Phang Nga’s Khao Lak was destroyed, decided to collect donations from friends to construct new boats for the fishermen. He established a dockyard in Baan Talae Nok in Ranong’s Suksamran subdistrict. As of last month, he had distributed more than 100 boats.
“I don’t think there will be a problem with overfishing just because of the boats we have given. We are just trying to turn the crisis into an opportunity for those fishermen who have never had a boat,” he says.

Overfishing in Thai waters has been a problem for decades, although the finger of blame is usually pointed at commercial fishing boats which operate with equipment such as push nets that let nothing get away. Wichotsak Ronarongpairee, an advisor to the FSSF, is concerned that the proliferation of small boats could be used by the government as an excuse to formulate policies to control fishing communities, as it has tried to do in the past.

For Witchotsak, the issue is indicative of the failure to properly manage the aid situation.

“Once people decided they wanted to help the fishing communities, the only thing on their minds was fishing boats, and they forgot to provide other kinds of relief,” he says.

A big problem, says Wichotsak, is the lack of coordination between relief organisations. Only SAN has been in contact with the FSSF. “The others just go to the villages and offer help directly to the villagers.”

But not all fishermen are worried about the increasing number of boats in the Andaman Sea. Alee Charnnam, a fisherman from Koh Poo Island in Krabi, says he does not mind seeing more fishing boats.

“Good catches depend on a fisherman’s skill. With small operations, it doesn’t mean that fancy new boats and good gear will make you catch more fish,” he says.

Alee says that what is more important is that small-scale fishermen do not destroy marine resources by catching everything they can. He says his community has just launched a campaign for sustainable fishing because everyone is aware of the need to protect marine resources.

Pennapa Hongthong
The Nation