Coastal fishing communities in Thailand

Abstract

The coastal fish catch in Thailand one of the world’s top ten fish producers is rapidly declining due to overfishing, which in some cases is more than three times the sustainable level. Commercial aquaculture, mainly shrimp farming, is also eating away the mangrove areas, affecting the coastal environment. Using data from marine fishery censuses in 1985 and 1995, the study analyses these changes among fishing communities in the five coastal zones of Thailand along the Andaman Sea and Gulf of T hailand. This forms the statistical backdrop for an in-depth field study of two coastal fishing communities in two southern provinces along the Andaman Sea. The analysis provides the basis for the author’s policy recommendations for the conservation of fisheries and the coastal ecology as well as socio-economic development of those who make a living from the sea.