| Burma's fishing ban on Thai Trawlers (5 Jul 00) |
| Bangkok Post October 25, 1999
Burma's fishing ban fifth so far Rows between dishonest Thais, corrupt Burmese are nothing new Onnucha Hutasingh and Achataya Chuenniran Burma's Oct 6 revocation of fishing concessions for Thai trawlers is the fifth such ban since Thai fishermen began operating in Burmese waters about two decades ago. The last time Rangoon closed its borders and scrapped fishery concessions for Thai fishermen was on Aug 10, 1995 following the murder of a Burmese crewman by a Thai colleague. After more than seven months of negotiations, Burma agreed to reopen its border crossings on Mar 16, 1996 but still barred Thai trawlers from operating in its waters. "But in reality, Thai trawlers registered as foreign boats could still conduct fishing then. Some illegally entered (Burmese waters) to fish. "Back then, it cost us about five million baht to arrange talks until Burmese waters were reopened," an official of the Thai-Burmese fisheries co-ordination centre said. In November 1997, Rangoon finally agreed to grant fishing concessions for some 400 Thai fishing trawlers and about 400-500 Thai boats registered as Burmese trawlers. According to a high-level official of the centre, Thailand and Burma have always had fishery disputes as Thai fishermen were dishonest while corruption among Burmese officials at all levels was an obstacle to the regulating of both countries' fishing contracts. "To contact Burmese officials, we have to pay them tea money all the way. The fleet of Thai fishing trawlers is also in a mess and disunited. So, they have no power to bargain with Burma," the official added. However, due to its better capacity the Thai fleet has been given high priority by Rangoon among fishing trawler fleets from Asian countries such as China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Australia. "For shallow-sea fishing, I dare say that Thai fishermen are the best in this region and our fleet is the largest. The Chinese, Japanese and Koreans are better than we are at deep-sea fishing. "More importantly, Thai fishing trawler operators like to employ Burmese crewmen. This is very useful for the Burmese government as its people will be trained for fishing," the same official added. Vikrom Aisiri, president of Andaman Company which has close ties with Burmese authorities, quoted some Burmese cabinet members as saying that Rangoon gave first priority to Thai trawlers since it was "easier" for Burmese authorities to talk to Thai fishermen. Last Friday, Mr Vikrom was asked by fishery business operators in Ranong to mediate in talks between Bangkok and Rangoon for the resumption of Thai fishing in Burmese waters. According to Ruangrit Busayarat, managing director of S.D.& S International Company with a Burmese fishing concession, Burma is paid 300,000-500,000 baht a month to allow each Thai fishing trawler to fish in its waters. The price of local-level fishing concessions for each Thai trawler registered as a Burmese boat ranges from 4,000 to 40,000 baht per month. Fishing concession fees vary depending on the size of boats and the size of concession areas classified into four zones: Rakhine Fishing grounds in the North, Ayeyawaddy and Mon fishing grounds in the central region, and Tanintharyi fishing grounds in the South. "Concession fees are so high that we can't break even. Operating a trawling trip costs us about 1-1.3 million baht," Mr Ruangrit said. According to him, most trawler operators enjoyed big profits in 1997 shortly after concessions were granted. For some trips, their profits reached one million baht. But the entrepreneurs have hardly gained any profit over the past year as fish stocks have been depleting. If they choose to suspend the operation of their fishing trawlers, they will suffer a loss of 10,000 baht per day per boat and still have to pay crewmen. However, the Burmese sea remains the best choice for Thai fishermen as there is still comparatively good catches, and is also reachable by most Thai trawlers with a capacity of 60-80 tonnes. There are limitations for Thai trawlers to operate in territorial waters of other Asian countries besides Burma. India has a strict maritime law requiring high standards of boats and equipment. More importantly, fishing trawlers using pull trawls are not allowed to enter Indian waters. Meanwhile, Bangladeshi waters are not appropriate for Thai fishermen who are not good at deep-sea fishing. Though the Indonesian sea is large, more than 1,000 Thai fishing trawlers are now operating there, causing depletion of fish stock. Indonesia also has no black tiger prawns which fetch more than 700 baht per kilogramme. Meanwhile, Vietnam and Yemen allow foreign fishing trawlers to operate in their waters under the condition that all catches must be sold locally only. South Africa is the least possible choice for Thai fishing operators as only trawlers which have a capacity of 400-500 tonnes and are worth not less than 50 million baht can travel that far. Mr Ruangrit added it might take a long time for the government to enter negotiations with other Asian countries for the granting of fishery concessions for Thai fishermen, and entrepreneurs can not wait that long for assistance. "I want to ask only one question. Has the Thai government ever sought Burmese fishing concessions for any Thai fishing boat over the past 20 years? Everything that was accomplished was by our own struggle, our own personal relationships. Even now fishermen are not confident that the government can solve the problem for us," he said. It was reported that before revoking fishing concessions for Thais, Burma had tried to re-arrange the use of its waters for fishing by foreign fishing trawlers. Earlier, Burma's fisheries ministry had announced a plan to revoke concessions for dual-nationality fishing boats, and require all foreign fishing concessionaires to pay in US dollars only. Preecha Sakullim, who owns more than 30 dual- nationality fishing trawlers, said Rangoon's attempts to make such a change would fail unless corruption among Burmese low-level officials can be controlled. However, many fishery business operators believe Burma will soon allow them to resume fishing in their waters without raising concession fees. An entrepreneur who requested anonymity said, "I am confident Burma will grant new concessions soon as it still has to depend on Thai fishing trawlers. "Concessions total more than two billion baht per year. Burma can not throw such a huge sum of money away. And only the Thai fishing fleet is ready to pay." ============================================ Dr. Louis Lebel SARCS Science Coordinator/Researcher Institute of Research & Development Walailak University Tha Sala, Nakhon-sri-tammarat 80160 THAILAND Email: llouis@wu.ac.th or llebel@cmnet.co.th New Direct Tel/Fax: 66-53-263-215 (Chiang Mai) Mobile: 66-1-892-9647 ============================================ Current Project Sites http://www.wu.ac.th/research/ http://www.icsea.or.id/sea-span/ http://www.icsea.or.id/issp/ http://www.icsea.or.id/gcbook/ Southeast Asian Policy Advisory Network in Global Change an initiative of BIOTROP-GCTE Impacts Centre for Southeast Asia |