Taiwan is the world’s fourth-largest shark catcher, a report on shark conservation said yesterday.
The Future of Sharks: A Review of Action and Inaction, a report released by the wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC and the Pew Environment Group and scheduled to be reviewed by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Committee on Fisheries next week, identifies the top 20 shark-catching countries and other entities and assesses their management of conservation measures agreed upon in 2001.
The analysis shows that the top 20 countries account for about 80 percent of total reported shark catches, or about 640,000 tonnes, with Indonesia, India, Spain and Taiwan accounting for 13 percent, 9 percent, 7.3 percent and 5.8 percent respectively.
“The future of many shark populations is essentially in the hands of the top 20,” the two organizations said, adding that the International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks “has yet to be fully implemented” since it was adopted by the FAO a decade ago.
About 30 percent of all shark species are threatened or near threatened with extinction as a result of unregulated fishing, much of it to meet the high demand for fins used as an ingredient in shark fin soup, a popular dish in East Asian countries, the report said.
The two organizations said the committee, which will hold a meeting from Monday to Friday in Rome to examine the effectiveness of the internal plan of action, prioritized its review on top catchers — including Indonesia, India, Taiwan, Argentina, Mexico, Pakistan and Malaysia — with little or no management of shark fisheries.
Most of the top 20 shark catchers “have failed to demonstrate what, if anything, they are doing to save these imperiled species,” the organizations said.
In Taipei, Fisheries Agency Director Sha Chih-yi (沙志一) yesterday said Taiwan had enforced conservation measures adopted by regional fisheries management organizations since its National Plan of Action was put into effect in 2006 and was considering doing more to protect other endangered marine species.
The regulations imposed by the agency on Taiwanese vessels include requiring vessels to transship and offload fins and carcasses together and ensuring that the fin to whole-body weight is less than 5 percent, Sha said.
Taiwanese vessels are also required to report the weight of shark bodies and fins on board when entering and leaving ports, as well as the weight of shark fins and carcasses offloaded while in port, he said.
Saying the regulations met the requirements on shark conservation and management measures of regional fisheries management organizations, Sha said the government would nevertheless enhance its inspection procedures to crack down on illegal fishing.
Sha said Taiwan was also considering imposing a ban on imports of fins and shark products from countries that are not participants in the international conservation and management plan to help end illegal fishing of endangered sharks.
Taiwan will also take part in the committee meeting next week in its capacity as a member of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna.
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS