The Central Administrative Court today ruled that the Fisheries Department had failed to properly monitor the importation of blackchin tilapia for research and had neglected its duty to prevent the spread of non-native species.
The court ordered the department to continue measures to control and eradicate the spread of invasive blackchin tilapia.
The court also ordered the Interior Ministry to consider directing the Samut Songkhram governor to declare areas affected by the spread of the species as “emergency disaster assistance zones”, so that affected residents can receive government assistance.
The ruling follows a lawsuit filed by 54 people affected by the spread of blackchin tilapia, which has caused widespread concern among fishermen and fish farmers in several provinces.
The plaintiffs accused the Fisheries Department and 17 other state agencies and officials of failing to control the importation of the invasive fish properly and enforce the law against those responsible.
The plaintiffs said this failure had allowed the fish to spread to waterways in several provinces, causing damage to their livelihoods, the environment and local aquatic resources.
They asked the court to order the authorities to control and eradicate the fish, restore affected ecosystems, provide assistance to affected people and pursue compensation from the private company involved in the importation.
The court said today that the department knew that allowing the importation of the non-native fish for research could affect Thailand’s native aquatic species.
After granting a company permission to import the fish under a licence dated Nov 12th, 2010, however, the department and its director-general never monitored or inspected the company’s research to determine whether it had complied with the stated purpose of the importation.
The court ruled that this constituted a failure to perform the department’s duty to control and prevent the spread of non-native aquatic species under the Fisheries Act 1947, which was the law in force at the time.
When the spread of blackchin tilapia became a problem between 2012 and 2016, the department and its director-general had a duty to address the problem under the Fisheries Royal Ordinance 2015, regardless of whether the spread was caused by the company, the court said.
The court acknowledged that the department has since introduced several measures to tackle the problem, including an action plan covering 2024-2027 and a series of urgent measures.
These measures had helped to reduce the prevalence of blackchin tilapia in all groups of affected watercourses, but the court said the results represented only an initial success.
As long as all measures under the 2024-2027 action plan had not been fully implemented and the spread had not been brought to an end or reached a level that restored ecological balance, the department and its director-general remained legally obliged to continue addressing the problem, the court said.
The department had also asked provincial governors to follow the relevant criteria, while the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation had issued guidelines for declaring areas emergency disaster assistance zones.
The court found, however, that the Samut Songkhram governor had not declared Amphawa, Muang Samut Songkhram and Bang Khonthi districts as emergency assistance zones to help the 54 plaintiffs and other affected residents.
The court ruled that the failure constituted a neglect of duty or an unreasonably delayed performance of a legal duty.
Nonetheless, the court dismissed the plaintiffs’ request for the department and 18 other defendants to pursue compensation from the company and other parties for damage to the state caused by the spread of blackchin tilapia under Section 97 of the Enhancement and Conservation of National Environmental Quality Act 1992.
The court said such action would not directly remedy the hardship or damage suffered by the 54 plaintiffs, meaning they did not have legal standing to bring an action on this issue.
