Marine talkfest to ensure better marine safety in Phuket

A meeting was held this morning (July 23) at the Chalong Pier. The meeting was led by Navy chief of staff Admiral Pichet Tannaset who was determined to follow through with measures that would ensure marine safety – better controlling tour boats in Phuket in order to prevent marine accidents.

Admiral Pichet says, “We don’t have direct power to enforce the law but we have seen many problems emerge from this boat tragedy.”

“We want see vastly improved passenger management at all ports as soon as possible. Also the checking of boats and boat safety equipment. A draft tour boat management enforcement procedure is currently being prepared.”

Director-General of the Marine Department Jiru Wisanjit says, “We are highly focused on ports and boat safety. We are checking on boats that carry more that 100 passenger for their safety and correct registration. Some of boat licenses were found to be expired. Those boats are currently banned from leaving port.”

“After we set the new, stricter safety parameters, tour boats will only be permitted to depart from ports that have been registered for tour boat operations. Tourists might be affected from this due to having to travel further for a departure point, but we have to do this to ensure better marine safety.”