According to a survey by the Fisheries Administration of the now disbanded Taiwan Provincial Government, in 1987 about 18,000 Aborigines worked on long-range fishing boats. They comprised about one-third of the 55,000 workers in the field.
根據前台灣省漁業局的調查，1987 年從事遠洋漁業人口約 5 萬 5,000 人，原住民約 1 萬 8,000 人，佔 3 分之一左右，是捕魚的主力。