"Thailand discourages human rights abuses by publishing list of fishing vessels," 25 September 2018

Thailand has published a list of all its registered and licensed fishing vessels as well as a watchlist of vessels prohibited from fishing, that have been sunk or damaged, or sold to neighboring countries, with the objective of tackling human rights abuse and illegal fishing.

The country is one of the first in Southeast Asia to do so. The list contains information such as each vessel’s registration number, owner’s name, and port of registration.

Making such information freely available is a crucial step in eradicating illegal fishing and human rights abuse in the industry, and marks Thailand out in the region for taking this progressive step, says the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).

...Illegal operators aim to create as much confusion as possible around their identities, escaping detection by changing vessel names, concealing ownership, flying different flags, or removing ships from registers entirely, EJF said...

Until recently, Thailand’s fishing fleet has been an unknown quantity, with vessel figures varying hugely depending on the data source. For instance, while government statistics for 2015 put the number of registered vessels at 18,089, other government sources declared the figure closer to 57,000. Such discrepancies meant that Thailand’s fishing fleet was dangerously unregulated...