Many of us tend to think of the blue swimmer crab, known locally as poo ma, as a culinary delicacy. But it also provides an essential livelihood for locals who have few other options to earn money and creates lucrative exports that fetch the country up to 40 billion baht a year.
Fresh crab commands more than 500 baht per kilogramme.
Credit must be given to the strong crab bank initiative created in 2001 by the late fisherman Jang Fungfeung, who noticed a drastic dip in the population of blue swimmer crabs around his home waters in the Gulf of Thailand because of overfishing by large-scale trawlers using seine nets to drag up the entire sea bed.
This style of fishing had significantly reduced the number of crabs on both the east and west coasts, including in Mr Jang's home community in the village of Ban Koh Tiap, Pathiu district, in Chumphon province.
Mr Jang decided to set up a crab bank and invited his fellow fishermen to join.
But his plan elicited little interest from others, leaving the group to start out with only four members.
The system is fairly simple -- members agree to deposit their gravid crabs (pregnant crabs) into the crab bank's rearing cages during the spawning season from May to June.
Once the female crabs lay their eggs in the bank, they are sold to local markets and the money is deposited in the community's bank account.
Until they are old enough to be released into the sea, juvenile crabs are raised at the bank in their cages.
Based on the number of crabs deposited in the bank, local fishermen are given a quota to catch more blue crabs under strict guidelines.
They are not allowed to use fishing nets with small meshes, or other equipment that might harm young crabs.
As the bank became more popular, it introduced other features such as low-interest loans, which has attracted more members.
Having access to emergency loans is important to fisherman in need of the occasional bailout when the seas turn rough and catches are slim.
Even before Mr Jang's efforts, there were already at least two crab bank projects in the country, but his has proven to be the most enduring, inspiring similar initiatives around the Gulf of Thailand.
Niwat Tanyachart, chief of the sufficiency economy's learning centre on the preservation of blue swimmer crabs at Ban Hua Laem, Na Yai Am district, Chanthaburi, is a member of the crab bank.
Mr Niwat and 15 of his fishermen peers decided to attend Mr Jang's learning centre on crab banks in 2008, and within three years of establishing their own crab banks at their homeland at Ban Hua Laem, he and his colleagues have seen a marked improvement and they have cleared off all their debts.
"During 2000-05, the blue swimmer crab in Thailand was overfished thanks to the proliferation of factories that produce pasteurised crabs for export without any state supervision over crab fishing," says Mr Niwat.
"In particular, 2005 saw Thailand face a drastic shortage of blue swimmer crabs, forcing local fishermen to go farther out to sea to fish and rely on informal debts."
He says initially most in his village ignored the crab banks, but once they witnessed higher blue crab production, other villagers agreed to join the crab banks.
Thirty families at Ban Hua Laem are members of Mr Niwat's crab bank, who have collectively agreed to refrain from fishing from October to December.
There are 191 blue swimmer crab banks across 20 coastal provinces in Thailand.
A National Research Council of Thailand study found each female blue swimmer crab lays about 500,000 eggs each season, of which fewer than 1% of newborn crabs survive.
Farmers can fetch an income of up to 50,000 baht based on a market price of 500 baht per kilogramme if 0.1% of the total eggs survive and grow to a total yield of 100kg.
Mr Niwat says the crab bank initiative helps boost stocks released into the sea and raises incomes, allowing all the members to be free from debts.
He owns two large-scale boats, earning about 8,000-20,000 baht in income per day.
The prospects will be even more promising, he says, following the mobile cabinet's meeting in early March, which approved a scheme to financially support fishery communities in coastal areas and establish more blue swimmer crab banks.
The government through the Government Savings Bank will provide soft loans worth 150,000-200,000 baht each to 300 communities to set up blue swimmer crab banks.
Nathporn Chatusripitak, a spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, says the cabinet ordered the research council to conduct more research and support local fishery communities to establish 500 additional blue swimmer crab banks over the next two years.
The Pracha Rat (People's State) public-private collaborative scheme will support the distribution channel for the communities' products, while the Commerce Ministry will support online marketing and exports.
