Role of Taiwan

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Standard Page - 2011-06-21

Taiwan is at the center of the crisis facing our oceans. It has fishing boats in every ocean of the world, and it has become one of the most powerful distant-water fishing industries. Taiwan has made huge profits off the world’s fish resources, and continues to build bigger and more efficient vessels, catching and selling fish in every corner of the earth.

Taiwan is at the center of the crisis facing our oceans. It has fishing boats in every ocean of the world, and it has become one of the most powerful distant-water fishing industries. Taiwan has made huge profits off the world’s fish resources, and continues to build bigger and more efficient vessels, catching and selling fish in every corner of the earth.

Taiwan’s distant-water fishing industry includes tuna, squid, and pacific saury (mackerel pike), as well as trawl fisheries. They have the largest fishing fleet in the Pacific, and an annual catch of around half a million tons. This totals almost the entire output value of its fishing industry.

Fleet Expansion and Flags of Convenience

The Lung Yuin is a Taiwan-owned ship that flies the flag of Vanuatu and is suspected of illegal fishing.

Government attempts to limit the size of its fishing fleet is undermined by a tricky loophole – flags of convenience (FOCs). This means that Taiwanese fishermen can register their vessels in a different country, and thus follow that country’s regulations instead of Taiwan’s. And the number of FOC vessels operated by Taiwanese fishermen has grown rapidly in recent years. Taiwan has one of the biggest tuna fleet in the world.

Lack of management

The government has failed to effectively manage its fishing industry for several reasons, including the lack of a distant-water fishery management strategy.

It is also hampered by limited legislation, monitoring, and capacity for control and surveillance of its fleet. Taiwanese FOC ships complicate the matter, as does the lack of management of fishing vessels in international waters and in exclusive economic zones (EEZs).

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing

The Taiwan Fisheries Agency admitted in its Proposal for Distant-Water Fishery Management and Industrial Restructuring that “illegal over-fishing is still common in exceedingly large fleet, in addition to the illegal and overt catch of FOC vessels, the Taiwanese government has to be responsible for all the accusations.”

There are many reported cases of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing among both Taiwan and FOC flagged vessels. These fish are then transported to other ships that bring the catch back to harbor. Evidence shows again and again that the long-line fleets of Taiwan and other countries simply cannot be trusted to fish legally in international waters or in the national waters of developing coastal states with limited monitoring capacity, without onboard observers.

Greenpeace activists protest in front of Taiwan's Fisheries Agency calling for efficient monitoring of Taiwanese-owned vessels. The activists displayed a banner reading in Chinese "Too much talk, too little action" accompanied by flags of Panama and Vanuatu to point out that the FA have failed in its job to investigate the illegal ship carrier MV Lung Yuin.

Unfortunately, Taiwan has been slow to respond to calls for further cuts on its fishing capacity at the international level to ensure sustainability, or to limit the impacts of its fishing fleets and fishing techniques to other marine life. Taiwan and other Asian fishing powers are also opposed to a proposed ban on at-sea transshipments (the transfer of fish between ships), even though the ban would help to reduce illegal fishing.

Greenpeace calls for Taiwan to immediately to take action against illegal fishing, ban destructive fishing practices and support the creation of Pacific marine reserves. The long-term sustainability of Taiwan’s fishing industry and the Pacific fisheries go hand in hand – the health of the oceans is critical to our future.