Hua Hin city is one of the top beach & sea tourist destinations of Thailand with a very high volume of tourists, both Thai and foreigner. Besides its physical attraction, seafood is one of Hua Hin’s tourism products that brings tourists to the destination, especially Blue Swimming Crab (BSC). However, in recent years there is a very low number of BSC due to overfishing which affected the local fishermen. The local fishing village called “Ban Kao Takiab” organized the crab bank, a sustainable crab conservation project to increase the number of BSC by taking the caught gravid females BSC called “berried female crab” in the in rearing condition, allowing them to spawn and then releasing them and young crabs back to the sea. The project is well-supported by local restaurants and hotels. Moreover, it has become a famous tourism activity in Hua Hin where tourists can come to the releasing station to join the volunteers of the project for releasing the crab and other marine lives back to the sea. This project is not only able to restore the abundance of marine livestock, but also to maintain and extend the economic benefits from tourism to the local fishing village.
Keywords: fishery, conservation, community collaboration, economic sustainability
