Crackdown threatens Thailand’s fishing industry

New rules: Migrant workers holding up their identity cards as a Thai officer checks them at a port in Samut Songkhram province. — Reuters

BANGKOK: Around 5,000 Thai fishing boats have stopped operating out of fear they will be prosecuted over new rules, a fisheries body said, as authorities crackdown to avoid a European Union ban on fish products.

The belated clampdown on illegal fishing, which comes in response to a “yellow card” issued by Brussels over inadequate fisheries monitoring, controls and punishment, is threatening to paralyse the world’s third largest seafood producer.