3. Social and geographic background

To analyse the socio-economic situation of small-scale fishermen along the Andaman Sea coast, two types of information are needed, on the social background of the small-scale fishermen and on the wealth derived from small-scale fishing. The number of fishing villages, average size of a fishing village, average size of a fishing household and infrastructure available in each fishing village have to be taken into account when calculating the economic impact of small-scale fishery. With these data, the net income per head and per household can be calculated and further estimates and recommendations made about the socio-economic situation of the small-scale fisherfolk along Thailand’s Andaman coast.

Number of fishing villages

As shown in Table 1, there are 621 fishing villages along the Andaman coat. Trang and Phang-Nga provinces have the highest number, 132 villages each. The lowest number of fishing villages was found in Ranong, 59 villages.

Table 1: Number of fishing villages in the six provinces along the Andaman Sea coast (Ruamporn Sirirattrakul, pers. com)

Province	Fishing village [n]
Ranong	59
Phang-nga	132
Phuket	66
Krabi	116
Trang	132
Satun	116
Total	621

Number of fishing households

The number of marine fishing establishments along the Andaman Sea coast according to the data available from the Department of Fisheries and from the National Statistical Office (1997) is given in Tables 2 and 3. Table 2 compares the number of marine fishery establishments and the number of operator households. Altogether, 16846 establishments and 16487 operator households were recorded in the six provinces in 1995. The difference was 359 establishments, or 2.1 percent of non-operator households. Three hundred and forty establishments were joint-management establishments, joint investments of two or more households or of joint principal production means such as fishing boats or fishing gear. This means that the difference between the number of establishments and operator households was less than 2 percent, In this study, the number of marine capture fishery establishments will thus be used as the number of fishing households engaged in marine fishery along the Andaman coast.

Table 2: Number of marine capture fishery establishments and of operator households along the Andaman coast (coastal zone 5) 1995 (Department of Fisheries and National Statistical Office 1997)

Province	Marine capture fishery establishments	Operator households
Ranong	2231	2205
Phang-nga	3970	3848
Phuket	1094	1031
Krabi	3105	3048
Trang	2651	2587
Satun	3795	3768
Total	16846	16487

The use of marine capture fishery establishments as fishing households along the Andaman coast may cause further problems because some establishments also work in coastal aquaculture. Table 3 shows the differences between establishments working only in marine capture fishery and establishments also involved in coastal aquaculture. The majority of fishermen engaged in marine capture fishery; only 7 percent or 1104 establishments were also working in aquaculture. Within this group, 70 percent or 789 establishments had fishing as their main income-providing activity. The total number of establishments only or mainly engaged in marine capture fishery was 16531. Therefore, the error made by using fishery establishments as the number of households mainly engaged in marine capture fishery is about 4 percent.

Table 3: Number of fishery establishments by type of fishery along the Andaman Sea coast (coastal zone 5) 1995 (Department of Fisheries and National Statistical Office 1997)

Province	Marine capture fishery only	Marine capture and coastal aquaculture	Mainly marine capture fishery	Mainly coastal aquaculture	Total
Ranong	2145	86	81	5	2231
Phang-nga	3333	637	445	192	3970
Phuket	1064	30	16	14	1094
Krabi	3014	91	42	49	3105
Trang	2558	93	62	31	2651
Satun	3628	167	143	24	3795
Total	15742	1104	789	315	16846
Only or mainly working in marine capture fishery	15742	-	789	-	16531

Average size of a fishing household

The average size of a fishing household in each province along the Andaman coast is shown in Table 4. The average size for all six provinces is five members per household. The smallest household size was found in the province of Phang-nga, the biggest in the southernmost province, Satun. The average size of a fishery-employee household was 4.4 members. The smallest households, with 4.0 members, were again found in Phang-nga and the largest in Satun, with 4.8 members.

Table 4: Number of fishery households, of fishery-employee households and of household members along the Andaman coast (coastal zone 5) 1995 (Department of Fisheries and National Statistical Office 1997)

Province	Fishery household			Employee household
	Household	Member	Members/ household	Household	Member	Members/ household
Ranong	2437	11783	4.8	704	2890	4.1
Phang-nga	4911	23281	4.7	1086	4328	4.0
Phuket	1262	6158	4.9	692	2845	4.1
Krabi	4470	23124	5.2	1025	4322	4.2
Trang	3750	18479	4.9	1942	9053	4.7
Satun	4507	23679	5.3	1875	8922	4.8
Total/Average	21337	106504	5.0	7324	32360	4.4

The data collected for this study show no different picture. In an interview of 330 fishing households in the bay of Phang-nga - about two percent of all fishing households along the Andaman coast - it was found that the average size of a fishing household was 4.92 members, compared with the 5.0 members officially reported.

Fishing infrastructure

Table 5 shows the types of fishing boat employed by marine capture fishery establishments. The vast majority (77.4 percent) have outboard engines and can be categorized as small-scale fishing boats. These long-tail boats are also used for transportation, communication and leisure. About 6.2 percent of the boats have no engine and are categorized as small-scale fishing boats too. Additionally, there are 1167 establishments without any boat. The total number of small-scale fishing establishments based on fishing boats is 15247 or 90.5 percent. In the southern part of Thailand, small-scale fishermen use inboard-powered boats. Furthermore, some authors categorize boats with inboard engines of up to 10 gross tonnage also as small-scale fishing boats. This would further increase the total number of small-scale fishing establishments.

Table 5: Number of marine capture fishery establishments and fishing boats separated by type of engine along the Andaman coast 1995 (Department of Fisheries & National Statistical Office 1997)

Province	Marine capture fishery establishments	Without boat	Percentage	Non-powered boats	Percentage	Outboard powered boats	Percentage	Inboard-powered boats	Percentage
Ranong	2231	173	7.8	197	8.8	1630	73.1	231	19.7
Phang-nga	3970	400	10.1	273	6.9	3091	77.9	206	6.0
Phuket	1094	186	17.0	44	4.0	739	67.6	125	32.4
Krabi	3105	306	9.9	229	7.4	2497	80.4	73	2.9
Trang	2651	26	1.0	152	5.7	2322	87.6	151	19.9
Satun	3795	76	2.0	153	4.0	2753	72.5	813	24.0
Total/Average	16846	1167	6.9	1048	6.2	13032	77.4	1599	15.2

The main types of fishing gear used by the marine fishery establishments along the Andaman coast classified as commercial gear and small-scale fishing gear are presented in Table 6. In all, 781 or 5 percent of all gear are categorized as commercial gear and 16065 or 95 percent as small-scale fishing gear.

Table 6: Number of marine capture fishery establishments by type of main fishing gear along the Andaman Sea coast; gear marked in grey are used in this study (Department of Fisheries and National Statistical Office 1997)

Gear	Number of establishments	Percentage
Commercial fishery
Otter boat trawl	385	49.3
Bamboo stake trap	160	20.5
Anchovy purse seine	78	10.0
Mini Thai purse seine	13	1.7
Thai purse seine	66	8.5
Pair trawl	29	3.7
Beam trawl	28	3.6
Mackerel purse seine	18	2.3
Luring purse seine	1	0.1
Bonito purse seine	1	0.1
Rocky fish surrounding net	1	0.1
Chinese purse seine	1	0.1
Total	781	100
Small-scale fishery
Shrimp gillnet	2952	18.4
Crab gillnet	1511	9.4
Hook and line	1458	9.1
Crab portable lift net	1264	7.9
Boat push net	1071	6.7
Squid trap	925	5.8
Crab trap	875	5.4
Mullet gillnet	863	5.4
Whiting gillnet	716	4.5
Fish trap	649	4.0
Small grouper trap	571	3.6
Other gillnet	548	3.4
Set bag net	527	3.3
Miscellaneous	527	3.3
Mackerel gillnet	450	2.8
Hand push net	292	1.8
Other cast net	280	1.7
Squid falling net	105	0.7
Other lift net	77	0.5
Mackerel encircling gillnet	73	0.5
Clam dredge	63	0.4
King mackerel gillnet	62	0.4
Beach seine	61	0.4
Other trap	58	0.4
Acetes dip net	53	0.3
Anchovy stick-held lift net	29	0.2
Anchovy stick-held box net	5	0.0
Total	16065	100

Among the small-scale fishing gear listed in Table 6, the three types used for this study (highlighted in grey) rank as first, second and fifteenth in terms of frequency of use. This shows that they are not specific to the bay of Phang-nga but are also widely used along the Andaman coast. This is also documented in Table 7, which gives an overview of the distribution of the three types of gear in the six provinces along the Andaman coast. It should be mentioned that the type of mackerel gillnet used in the bay is not comparable with the mackerel gillnets used outside the bay.

Table 7: Number of main capture fishery establishments by type of gear used for this study and by province (CDCF and Statistical Office 1997)

Province	Mackerel gillnet	Crab gillnet	Shrimp gillnet
Ranong	5	100	227
Phang-nga	63	351	839
Phuket	5	83	64
Krabi	56	153	830
Trang	116	484	286
Satun	205	340	706
Total	450	1511	2952

The bay of Phang-nga

The bay of Phang-nga is hemmed in by the provinces of Phang-nga, Phuket and Krabi. Along its coast, there are 114 fishing villages, or about 18 percent of all villages along the Andaman coast. These villages have 5759 fishing households, 35 percent of all fishing households along the Andaman coast, with 13111 fisherfolk, an average of 2.3 per household. Tables 8 and 9 (overleaf) show the districts along the bay. Surprisingly, one third of the fishermen are female; but the data give no further information about their role in Phang-nga bay fishery.

Table 8: Number of households and population in the Andaman Sea, 1995

Province	District	Sub-district	Village	Household	Fishing households [%]	Fishing household [n]	Population
Phang-nga	4	14	63	8887	42.4	3771	41962
Phuket	2	6	28	8910	8.2	734	41008
Krabi	2	8	23	3800	33.0	1254	16227
Total	8	28	114	21597	average: 27.8	5759	99197

Source: Data collected from the National Statistical Office in each province

• the villages should be easily accessible;
• the help and support of the fishermen was assured; and
• the villages were of normal size and had no unusual advantages or disadvantages compared with other fishing villages.

Table 9: Fishing households and fishermen, 1995 (Data collected from the National Statistical Office in each province)

Province	Phang-nga				Krabi		Phuket		Total
District	Muang	Takua Thung	Thap Pud	Ko Yao	Muang	Ao Luk	Muang	Tha Lang
Fishing household	978	995	557	1241	380	874	269	465	5759
Fisherfolk	2116	2516	1016	3188	896	1739	722	918	13111
Male	1475	1888	753	2321	757	1375	591	802	9962
Female	641	628	263	867	139	364	131	116	3149

The villages and the number of fishing households relative to the total number of households are presented in Table 10. Figure 2 (p15) gives an overview of the sites of the villages along the Phang-nga bay coast.

Table 10: Villages covered by this socio-economic study and number of representative fishing households in the bay of Phang-nga

Village	Fishing household	Percentage	Other household	Percentage	Total
Ban Ao Khung	20	29	49	71	69
Ban Bang Chan	48	58	35	42	83
Ban Hin Rom	112	86	18	14	130
Ban Sam Chong Tai	58	100	-	-	58
Ban Bang Pat	47	100	-	-	47
Ban Laem Sak	323	85	57	15	380
Total	608		159		767