The Fishery Department is to ban fishing in the Andaman Sea off four southern coastal provinces for three months starting April 1 in order to allow fish to spawn and propagate.

The fishing ban will cover a total area of 4,696 square kilometers or 2.9 million rai in the Andaman Sea off Phuket, Phang-nga, Krabi and Trang provinces.

Fishery Department director-general Wimon Chanthararothai said Friday that the fishing ban would coincide with the spawning season of fishes, especially Pla Too or mackerel, and other marine lives.

He said that over-fishing had depleted the number of fishes and other marine lives in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf.

Statistics of catches conducted by the fishing survey vessel showed that before the enforcement of the three-month fishing ban, the amount of catches per hour was registered at 276.76 kilomgrammes. But after the ban, the amount of catches has climbed up to 722.21 kilogrammes per hour.

Fishing ban in the Andaman Sea will start April 1 - Thai PBS English News