A belated Thai clampdown on illegal fishing is forcing unlicensed vessels ashore, threatening to paralyze a key industry as the kingdom desperately tries to avoid a European Union ban on exports worth $1 billion a year. Barrels of fish packed in ice are usually rolled off boats at a bustling port in Samut Sakhon, a coastal province near Bangkok, by Myanmar and Cambodia migrant workers who prop up the world's third largest seafood producer. But many will sit idle from Wednesday, say their Thai employers, who have failed to obtain necessary fishing permits under a raft of new government rules aimed at cleaning up the shadowy industry.

Thailand cracks down on illegal fishing as fears grow over possible EU export ban. (2015, July 2). BusinessWorld, p. S1/5.