Recent reports that the Indonesian crewmembers of the Te Hung Hsing No. 368, registered in Suao (蘇澳), Yilan County, are suspected of having thrown the Taiwanese skipper and chief engineer overboard during a voyage in the eastern Pacific Ocean have once again brought the problem of a severe shortage of workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry into the spotlight. The fisheries agencies cannot hide behind the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Coast Guard Administration and allow these tragedies to continue.
Because of the long hours, low pay, poor living conditions onboard and the danger involved, very few Taiwanese are willing to work as fishermen. Although the government allocates high salaries each year to encourage young graduates to go out to sea and work, it has not done anything else and the effect of its action has been limited.
This is especially evident when it comes to university graduates from fishing-related faculties who do not take up jobs in the industry. This is a waste of labor and training, not to mention money. Despite this, the Ministry of Education has yet to come up with any solution to the problem.
Because of the current harsh economic realities, Taiwanese ship owners mainly employ, except for the senior onboard management roles, foreign fishermen who come from different backgrounds and have varying skills.
Managing a foreign crew is hard as most Taiwanese captains have limited knowledge of the background and character of their foreign crewmembers and the language barrier makes communication difficult. Often, the slightest oversight on the part of the Taiwanese management can result in violent conflict.
Since they are often outnumbered by the foreign crewmembers, they usually find themselves at a disadvantage when conflict arises. This has made Taiwanese even more cautious about going into fishing, and the whole thing has turned into a vicious cycle.
The fisheries agencies are fully aware of these issues, but they have never pro-actively sought a solution to the problems. Not surprisingly, the agencies have come under criticism from academics who say they are the real reason behind the bloodshed that often takes place at sea.
Due to labor demand and costs, most of the foreign crew working on Taiwanese ships come from China and Southeast Asia. Taiwanese bosses and Chinese crewmembers share a common language and cultural similarities. However, as China’s economy has grown and employment opportunities on land and salaries have increased, fewer Chinese fishermen are willing to work on Taiwanese ships and many are demanding higher pay.
With fuel prices increasing and the size of catches decreasing, Taiwanese ship owners have started to employ fishermen from Southeast Asia, notably Indonesia. However, because of language and cultural differences, coupled with Indonesian fishermen not being accustomed to the hard working conditions at sea and the Taiwanese management style, arguments usually arise, many of which have ended in tragedy. This has made fishing a high-risk industry.
As a bare minimum, the government needs to amend laws and increase the ratio of Taiwanese to foreign workers aboard ships, as well as increasing security presence. In addition, the government should enhance protection measures by tightening the selection and approval procedures for fishermen or make use of other fishery cooperation mechanisms to ask their Southeast Asian counterparts to strengthen training.
Apart from this, the only other way to solve these problems is to follow development trends in the global fishing industry, restructure Taiwan’s fishing industry and move the focus away from deep-sea fishing to coastal fishing.
Subsidy policies should be adjusted to phase out old fishing vessels; guidelines should be given to less-efficient fishermen to switch to other industries; and retirement and pension plans for elderly fishermen should be promoted.
In the short term, fisheries agencies should do everything they can to encourage Taiwanese to work at sea. With the current status of the economy and many people unable to find jobs this is especially important. The government should also come up with more attractive policies — not just by increasing pay. These measures could include improving all aspects of conditions on fishing vessels and benefits for crewmembers. Automated equipment should also be encouraged as well as reducing the number of foreign crewmembers.
The government should also encourage those in the fishing industry to adopt energy-saving practices to lower costs. Fishermen should be encouraged to engage in fishing practices aimed at enhancing and restoring coastal fishing resources.
Phasing out old fishing vessels should also help control the number of active vessels. The government should carefully review how many foreign crewmembers Taiwan will need in the future and then employ only a certain number of fishermen from specific countries to avoid becoming overly reliant on workers from one single country.
Lastly, it can make use of non-governmental organizations to promote cooperation mechanisms for emergency relief at sea to increase the number of sources to provide rescue to those in need.
Over the past decade or so, Taiwan’s fishing industry has become a mere shadow of its former self. The incomes of ship owners and fishermen have drastically declined and the economies of fishing villages have deteriorated. This has discouraged young people in these villages from going into fishing; they have instead moved away in search of a better life.
Given a lack of younger workers, it has become harder for the fishing industry to upgrade its technology or employ new concepts and methods.
This has caused a rapid drop-off in the overall competitiveness of Taiwan’s fishing industry. Many problems have been deliberately covered up and when the nation’s top leaders visit these fishing villages, they are treated to stage shows that have been arranged in advance.
With the internal and external challenges facing the fishing industry, comprehensive reform is needed to solve its problems. The only question that remains is whether President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has any sense of all the problems that have been mentioned here.
Du Yu is chief executive officer of the Chen-Li Task Force for Agricultural Reform.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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