Is Thailand’s favourite fish on its way out? How insatiable appetites put ‘pla tu’ mini-mackerel in peril

Name: Thai mackerel might be wiped off the menu, but why?
Uploaded: 2023-12-09T01:30:21.000Z
Duration: 3 min 5 s
Description: Thai mackerel might be wiped off the menu, but why?

Beloved as an affordable, meaty staple of Thai cuisine, the protein-packed ‘pla tu’ was once plentiful in the Gulf of Thailand

But five years of record low catches show overfishing, a changing climate and growing global demand for Thai seafood are taking their toll

Reading Time:7 minutes

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Aidan Jones

Published: 9:30am, 9 Dec 2023Updated: 1:49pm, 9 Dec 2023

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

In the ‘Bay of Abundance’, Thailand’s favourite fish has gone missing. Some 200km to the west, the famed fishmongers of Mae Klong have turned to Indonesia to plug the shortage – as marine scientists warn that stocks of pla tu may be at the point of collapse.

A protein-packed mini-mackerel that once flourished in the Gulf of Thailand, pla tu is now disappearing, and those who rely on it for an income and nutrition fear the meaty, affordable staple may soon be snatched from their plates.

The shortbodied mackerel’s tribulations have been decades in the making; caused by a confluence of climate change, overfishing and a growing global appetite for Thai seafood.

Thailand is the world’s sixth-largest exporter of fish and seafood, with a seemingly insatiable domestic market to match.

But as sea temperatures rise and extreme weather patterns turn ocean currents upside down, pressure is also rising on the marine ecosystem – causing the plankton-munching pla tu’s population to nosedive.

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Thai mackerel might be wiped off the menu, but why?