The legislature yesterday passed the Act Governing Distant Water Fisheries (遠洋漁業條例) as well as amendments to the Fisheries Act (漁業法) and the Ordinance to Govern Investment in the Operation of Foreign Flag Fishing Vessels (投資經營非我國籍漁船管理條例), tightening regulations and raising the fines for illegal fishing, “fish laundering” and other significant violations.
The EU on Oct. 1 last year issued a “yellow card” to Taiwan following the discovery of a Taiwanese fishing vessel violating shark finning regulations in international waters and threatened to issue a “red card,” which could prompt an EU embargo on Taiwanese seafood exports, which would seriously damage the country’s fishing industry, should the nation fail to improve its legal framework and take corrective measures.
The government has since made an effort to work with the legislature to draft a bill governing the nation’s distant water fisheries. The Executive Yuan came to an agreement with the legislature on the draft bill on Monday last week and the legislative caucuses reached a final consensus on Wednesday last week.
Photo: Huang Chien-hua, Taipei Times
The Act Governing Distant Water Fisheries lists 19 activities as “major violations,” including undertaking distant fishing without registration; failing to install a vessel monitoring system and a system to report each vessel’s catch; unloading and transshipping fish and fishing in foreign waters without official approval; counterfeiting and hiding identification markers, such as the name and number of a fishing boat; fishing in excess of the authority’s announced quotas; fishing, possessing, transshipping, unloading or selling banned species; avoiding or obstructing inspection and cooperating with boats that have been undertaking illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The act stipulates that business operators or employees who perpetrate any of the major violations would be severely fined and their fishing permits would be revoked for up to two years. The fines are categorized in proportion to the size of the boat in question.
Boats weighing 500 tonnes and above are to be subject to a fine between NT$6 million and NT$30 million (US$185,862 and US$929,310); boats weighing 100 tonnes to 500 tonnes, between NT$4 million and NT$20 million; boats weighing between 50 tonnes and 100 tonnes, between NT$2 million and NT$10 million; and boats weighing less than 50 tonnes are to be subjected to a fine of between NT$1 million and NT$5 million.
If the fines are “less than the value of seized fishery products, the perpetrator would instead be fined up to five times of the value of the seized products.”
Repeat violations are subject to more severe punishment, the act stipulates.
“Some fishermen might consider the penalties too heavy. However, the act is not established to punish fishermen, but to protect oceanic resources and encourage legal fishing,” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Sufin Siluko (廖國棟) said.
Amendments to the Ordinance to Govern Investment in the Operation of Foreign Flag Fishing Vessels prohibit Taiwanese from investing in or operating boats that are non-Taiwanese without official permission. If investments are planned for boats that undertake IUU fishing, the permission would not be granted, or, if already granted, would be revoked, according to the amendment.
The amendment also defines “major violations” of its own, similar to those outlined by the Act Governing Distant Water Fisheries.
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
Japan and the Philippines yesterday signed a defense pact that would allow the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces stage joint training to boost deterrence against China’s growing aggression in the region and to bolster their preparation for natural disasters. Japan has faced increasing political, trade and security tensions with China, which was angered by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remark that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would be a survival-threatening situation for Japan, triggering a military response. Japan and the Philippines have also had separate territorial conflicts with Beijing in the East and South China
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
RSS