Trawler owner in hot water over whale shark capture
>> The owner of a fishing trawler in Phuket is facing legal action because his crew had netted a whale shark and brought it onto the boat, an act deemed illegal although the endangered species was only caught briefly before it was reportedly released uninjured.
A complaint was lodged at 2am yesterday with police seeking legal action against the boat owner while the boat was seized for inspection, naval chief-of-staff Phichet Tanaset said.
Adm Phichet was speaking after attending a briefing on the matter at the government’s Port In Port Out (Pipo) centre in Phuket yesterday. The centre was set up as part of the government’s efforts to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
A video clip featuring a large whale shark being caught on a fishing trawler was posted in social media, sparking an outcry among netizens. It has prompted an investigation into the alleged violation of a 2015 executive decree on fisheries.
The fishing trawler in the clip was later identified as Saeng Samut 3, which is owned by Watcharpol Wanna but operated by Somsamai Meejom and 13 other crew members, the Phuket Pipo centre said yesterday.
The action by the boat’s crew as seen in the clip clearly was considered a violation of Section 66 of the 2015 executive decree on fisheries, which prohibits taking marine mammals or endangered species onto a fishing boat, the centre said.
The capture of the whale shark is also considered a violation of a 2016 ministerial announcement by the Agriculture Ministry, Phuket governor Noraphat Plodthong said.
“The Phuket Pipo centre authorities are filing charges against the owner of the fishing trawler [in the video clip],” Mr Noraphat said.
The fishing trawler was seen near Koh Racha and Koh He in Muang district on Friday afternoon, he said.
Following this incident, he said, the province now aims to step up public campaigns intended to raise awareness among boat operators, particularly ones hired to take tourists, over what they should do to comply with the laws in the event they are confronted with a whale shark.
Boats are required to keep a sufficient distance from the marine mammals and as quickly as possible release one if it is found caught in a net by accident, he said.
Speaking after visiting the seized fishing trawler and questioning crew members who remained at the boat yesterday, Adm Phichet said some Myanmar crew members who could speak some Thai told him that the whale shark, about 2m long, was lifted with a crane and released back into the water without being hurt.
Adm Phichet said “that action was good” but the real intention behind lifting the whale shark onto the boat remained to be further investigated, although the crew appeared to have not intended to catch the shark.
Lifting a whale shark onto a boat may result in a fine of between 300,000 baht and 3 million baht, or five times the value of the whale shark caught, he said.
Kowit Kao-ian, chief of Phuket’s fisheries office, said he believes the whale shark captured in the video clip is still alive given the fact that the office hadn’t received any reports about a dead whale shark being found.
However, a person who posted a video clip of the shark reported the animal was dead after it was released into the sea and that divers saw its body floating.