APPLICATION OF THE VESSEL MONITORING SYSTEM (VMS) TO TACKLE THAILAND’S ILLEGAL FISHING PROBLEMS

Although Thailand is considered one of the world's major seafood exporters, it has encountered the European Union's decision to issue a yellow card since April 21, 2015. This was due to its lack of concrete solutions to illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) that meet international standards. In other words, there still exist the use of illegal fishing equipment and the lack of fishing vessel number control which result in declining marine animal resources, over fishing, and problems of forced labor stemmed from Thailand's downgrade to Tier 3 in the June 2014 US's Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP Report) [1]. Regarding to this, SCB Economic Intelligence Center (EIC) used to anticipate that Thailand may lose up to 500 dollars worth in revenue. In case the import of seafood from the EU is suspended. The present problems include illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishery activities. In the case of Thailand, it is currently found that the means of fisheries have changed from those in the past and are mostly prone to being illegal, posing various negative consequences. Subsequently, International organizations have encouraged the Thai government to impose legal measures, applying technologies, and seek cooperation from every related sector--in order to come up with the appropriate measures for eliminating and encountering illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. These aim at bringing about effective management and sustainable use of marine resources. This research reveals that Thailand has already applied technologies effectively as well as proposed concrete operational approaches, resulting in international organizations' acceptance of Thailand's fishing standards.