TRAWL FISHING

              Trawl is one of the most recently introduced fishing gears in Thailand.  It is now the most wide-spread and the most important gear in terms of production and the number of fishing units.

              The first experiments with pair trawl and otter trawl fishing, conducted in the early 1950s by some private fishing companies, were unsuccessful.  In 1960, however, the Department of Fisheries intervened and with the technical assistance from the Federal Republic of Germany launched a program designed to promote trawl fishing, particularly otter trawl which was gaining reputation of being highly effective.  After that, the number of otter trawl fishing boats has increased rapidly, with a corresponding sharp rise in production.

              Trawl fishing in Thailand is classified into three types; otter trawl (including otter with boom-trawl, pair trawl and beam trawl.  Among these, otter trawl is the most widely operated gear in Thailand.  As can be seen from the fishery statistics for 1990 to 1997 (Table 3.1).

              In the period from 1990-1997, the annual catch by trawl had stabilized at the level of about 1.5 million ton. About 85 per cent of the total catch is contributed by otter-trawl.  The production by beam trawl is very low as a proportion of the total trawl catch.  However, there was an important increase in the catch by this gear in 1980 and in subsequent years, mainly due to a significant presence of non penaeid prawns.

Table 3.1 Annual catches by trawl, 1990-1997

Source: Fishery statistical bulletin for the South China Sea area, 1990-1997

              According to the fishery statistic form 1990-1997, the annual catch by beam trawl has been increasing, particularly, the catch in 1996 became more than 7 time of the catch in 1992, this increase of catch is due to the increasing of the number of beam trawl  fishing boats from 52 (in 1992) up to 286 (in 1996). For both the otter trawl and pair trawl, the number of fishing boats highest in 1990 (8,626 otter trawl fishing boats and 2,193 pair trawl fishing boats) and lowest in 1995 (6,321 otter trawl fishing boats and  1,576 pair trawl fishing boats) while the total catch is very much higher as can be seen from the fishery statistics for 1990-1997 (Table 3.2)

Table 3.2  Number of trawl fishing boats in Thailand, 1990-1997

Source : Fishery statistical bulletin for the South China Sea area, 1990-1997

              An  important  factor  in favour of  beam trawl is a comparatively low proportion of trash-fish in the catch; the proportion of trash-fish decreasing from 36 percent (in 1982) became 0 percent (in 1997). For pair-trawl the proportion of trash-fish is about 34 percent and very much higher, about 55 percent by the otter-trawl (in 1997).

              The major species caught by otter trawl are non-penaeid prawns, squid, cuttlefish and threadfin bream.  Pair trawl fishing concentrates mainly on squids, cuttlefishes and threadfin bream.  The non-penaeid prawns are the main species caught by beam trawl, accounting for 71 percent of the total catch.

              The main species caught by trawl in 1997 were as follows:

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Source : Fishery statistical bulletin for the South China Sea area 1997

FISHING GEAR AND METHODS

              The trawl fishing in Thailand can be grouped into four major categories :