The US government has given the green light for imports of Thai fishery products, as they have been found to comply with the US Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) for the past several years.
Bancha Sukkaew, Director-General of the Department of Fisheries, told reporters this week that the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has officially announced its approval on the Federal Register website.
Bancha revealed that Thailand is among 89 countries whose fishery products have been verified under the MMPA, stating that about 2,500 fishery products from 135 US trading partners are on the List of Foreign Fisheries (LOFF) under NOAA consideration.
He said that official reports on Thailand’s integrated protection and management of marine mammals have been regularly sent for NOAA’s Comparability Findings assessments since 2017.
His department and the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, as members of a subcommittee under the National Fisheries Policy Committee (NFPC), have worked together to send the official reports to NOAA, according to Bancha.
The senior Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry official noted that NOAA’s approval shows that exports of Thai fishery products to the US market neither cause injuries nor deaths to marine mammals.
Modern technology has also been applied to ensure that no marine mammals are accidentally trapped in gill nets used by local fishermen. These include the installation of Pingers, devices that send alarming signals to Irrawaddy whales and other marine mammals in the Gulf of Thailand.
