Fishing disputes between the Philippines and Taiwan surfaced again yesterday after the Cabinet-level Fisheries Agency announced that a Taiwanese fisherman would return in a few days following a year in detention in the Philippines.
Huang Chi-huang (
Huang was acquitted of the illegal fishing charge on Tuesday. Wu Hsin-hsing (
Chen Li-hua (
"I will not say anything until he is back," Chen said.
The Fisheries Agency urged fishermen not to enter Philippine waters because the country has banned all foreign fishing boats from operating in its waters since 1998.
However, Liuchiu Fishermen's Association in Pingtung, where Huang's boat was registered, said it was difficult to avoid entering Philippine waters.
The 200-nautical-mile (370-km) economic zones of Taiwan and the Philippines overlap in the Bashi Channel.
"Since our government and the Philippines have not established a cooperation mechanism about fishing, our fishermen have no choice but to agree a semi-cooperative deal with their brokers in the Philippines," an association official said.
The brokers, many of them immigrants from Taiwan, colluded with Philippine officials to forge fishing licences to sell to the fishermen, according to the official.
"The purchase of the false credentials is prevalent among fishermen," the official said.
The Fisheries Agency's Deep Sea Fisheries Division acknowledged the existence of the illegal fishing and asked fishermen not to be deceived by the brokers.
What enticed many Taiwanese fishermen to illegally fish in Philippine waters is the highly profitable bluefin tuna, which abounds in the Bashi Channel, a division official said on condition of anonymity.
In Taipei restaurants, a slice of bluefin tuna could sell for as much as NT$300.
"Some say catching a bluefin tuna is like earning a luxury car," the official said.
The Fisheries Agency said in a statement that nine Taiwanese fishing boats detained by Philippine authorities over the past two years all held counterfeit fishing credentials.
Since April last year, the Philippines detained five Pingtung-registered fishing boats. Since May this year, four Kaohsiung-registered fishing boats have been detained.
Six of the nine boats escaped during a typhoon that hit the Philippines at the end of July and returned to Taiwan.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai