The nation is ready to defend its rights in the global fisheries community at an international meeting to be held today in Micronesia, Fisheries Administration officials said yesterday.
Fisheries Administration Director-General Hsieh Ta-wen (謝大文), Taiwan's chief delegate, will detail a management program on the nation's efforts to regulate its deep-sea fishing industry during the second annual meeting of the Wes-tern and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), in anticipation that Japan will make fresh allegations about Taiwan's fishing practices on the high seas, according to the officials.
Owing to pressure from Japan, which complained about Taiwan's overfishing, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) agreed during its Nov. 20 annual meeting to cap the annual quota for the nation's bigeye tuna catch in the Atlantic at 4,600 tonnes for next year -- a large reduction from the current level of 14,900 tonnes.
As Japan is expected to raise new protests against Taiwan in today's WCPFC annual meeting since it already put forth documents last week to a WCPFC committee accusing Taiwan of "fish laundering," the WCPFC annual conference chair has agreed to allow the nation to elaborate on its fishing boat reduction plan to other members in today's meeting after Taiwanese delegates gave an initial explanation to the chair, the officials said.
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