Thai Blue Swimming Crab Fishery Improvement Project: WU’s International Collaboration on Best Practices for Sustainable Marine Resources
The Fishery Improvement Project is a one-stop shop for information on the progress of global fishery improvement projects. It makes tracking progress more efficient, consistent, and reliable for businesses that support sustainable fishery improvement projects.
Since 2017, Asst. Prof. Dr. Amonsak Sawusdee, Walailak University, has cooperated with national and international organizations to implement the “Thai Blue Swimming Crab Fishery Improvement Project”. The project has been conducted with international collaboration from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Marine Resources Assessment Group (MREG), and the NFI Crab Council (United States). The project aims to analyze the best practices for fishery improvement of blue swimming crab management and review all comparative approaches to tackle each indicator of measurable improvement. The measurable improvement that is used to assess the project includes sustainable fish stocks, minimizing environmental impacts, and effective management. The targeted area is Surat Thani Province, one of the largest blue crab exporters in Thailand.
Also, the project has been engaged with national organizations in Thailand, including the Department of Fisheries, the Thai Frozen Foods Association, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, the Hydro-Informatics Institute, Ubon Ratchathani University, Kasetsart University, Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya Trang Campus, and Rambhai Barni Rajabhat University. The project has been implemented for five years. In 2022, the evaluation of the project was given an A, showing that this project has been implementing best practices for marine resource conservation all along. The next evaluation will occur in 2023. The score can be seen at https://fisheryprogress.org/
This momentous project can ensure all countries that want to import fishery products from Thailand that the aquatic products in Thailand are sustainably harvested. It is also planned to be a model for setting strategies for the management of blue swimming crab generation across Thailand. At the moment, fishermen across the Gulf of Thailand can catch blue swimming crabs in the amount of 10 kg per ship per day.
Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Goal 14: Life below water
Goal 15: Life on land