Thailand, ASEAN fellows join forces against IUU issues

BANGKOK, November 7 (TNA) - Thailand welcomes more than 60 delegates from other fellow ASEAN port states for this week's regional workshop on cooperation against Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing issues. Chamnan Pongsri, Director of the Foreign Fisheries Affairs Division under the Department of Fisheries, told journalists on Monday that his department, under the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, has joined forces with the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to organise the workshop in Bangkok, aimed to create mutual and proper understanding among ASEAN port states on legal fisheries in order to ensure that all ASEAN port states handle fisheries-related issues in the same direction. The senior Thai official raised for instance if a foreign ship asked to be docked in Thailand, it would be allowed to do so at only 27 ports approved by the Thai government. The senior Thai official admitted that there are operational complications in dealing with IUU fishing issues in the region, expressing his hope that the ongoing four-day workshop, set during November 7-10, would come out with some agreed issues for a legal revision in the same direction in the future. (TNA)