Concurrent boat, fishing licences to ease owner woes

Fishing boat-owners will now be able to renew or apply for their boat and fishing licences at the same time, after the Marine Department and the Fisheries Department announced yesterday the two licences will expire at the same time starting from this year.

The change was made to ease licencerenewal woes for fishing boat owners, in a bid to decrease the amount of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the country, Marine Department chief Chirute Visalachitra said.

According to him, boat licences were previously valid for one year, while fishing licences were valid for two, which led to boat-owners having to go through tedious processes to renew both licences.

Boat licences are issued by the Marine Department, while fishing licences are granted by the Fisheries Department.

The change means both licences will last two years and expire at the same time. The change will begin from this year, according to Mr Chirute.

Fisheries Department director-general Adisorn Promthep said all boats must apply for the new boat and fishing licences from today until Feb 20. According to him, all fishing boats must obtain licences to fish by April 1, as previous fishing licences are due to expire by March 31.

He said more than 11,000 fishing boats were registered as of last year, adding the change now means fishing boat owners will now be able to request both boat and fishing licences at their provincial fishery offices.

“These changes are considered a huge improvement from the problems fishing boat-owners were faced with in previous years,” said Mongkol Sukcharoenkana, chairman of the National Fisheries Association of Thailand.

“Some boats continued to operate with one of their licences expired before the other, which would have led to unnecessary breaches of the law.”

He added an extension of the boats’ registration periods to a month from the previous maximum 15 days is also considered more convenient for boat-owners.

Command Centre for Combatting Illegal Fishing (CCCIF) chief Wannapol Glormgeao said yesterday the government will be separating the registrations into two main categories.

The first category will be fishing boats with a total weight of over 30 gross tonnes, including equipment. These also include boats which have been temporarily suspended from operation without licences, he said.

“These boats are normally familiar with our Port In-Port Out centres located at their local docks, and will be able to check their equipment at these centres,” VAdm Wannapol said.

The second category consists of fishing boats lighter than 30 gross tonnes which do not have to be checked at the Port In-Port Out centres because they are not equipped with destructive fishing gear.