Asia Dive News : 100 Andaman fish types to be protected in Thailand

Fishing for more than 100 kinds of fish off six south Thailand provinces on the Andaman Sea will be prohibited once a new ministerial regulation takes effect in the near future, a senior official at the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said.

Maitree Duangsawas, director-general of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, said the department was considering including the list of protected fish in the 1992 Wildlife Protection Law, at the request of the Wildlife Fund Thailand (WFT). This would make it illegal even to possess the fish.

The provinces in question are those affected by the tsunami in December 2004 - Phuket, Satun, Phang Nga, Krabi, Trang and Ranong.

WFT secretary-general Suraphol Daungkhae said he had spoken to several animal rights groups and divers' communities to discuss which types of fish were at greatest risk of extinction and should be included on the list first.

Source: The Nation