Announcement of the Department of Fisheries concerning authorization of transshipment outside Thai waters (No. 2).

These Rules are issued by the Director-General of the Department of Fisheries under paragraph 2 of section 87 of the Fisheries Ordinance of 2015. Section 87 stipulates that no transshipment of aquatic animals shall be made at sea with the exception of a transshipment onto a fishing vessel registered as a carrier for the transshipment of aquatic animals or a vessel for the storage of aquatic animals, in which case the owner or master of the fishing vessel must obtain permission from the a competent official by radio transmission or a similar means of communication as well as submit a transshipment declaration certified as true and accurate by the master of fishing vessel to the competent official after completion of transshipment. An application for permission and the submission of a transshipment declaration shall be in accordance with the rules, procedures and time period prescribed by the Director-General. For the purposes of preventing and combatting IUU fishing, the Director-General shall have the power to prohibit transshipments at sea for certain or all vessels in the specified areas and time periods. These Rules prescribe the form of Transhipment Declaration and require transshipment operations outside Thai waters to be in accordance with international rules and the law of coastal states where the shipment takes place. The Rules also concern electronic reporting on transshipment operations.