The Coast Guard Administration is planning to spend between NT$1 billion and NT$2 billion to build the nation's first advanced multirole rescue ship and another ship designed to clean up oil spills, a Cabinet official said yesterday.
The Cabinet hopes to give the three-year plan the go-ahead by May or June.
"We're mapping out detailed plans about the projects, and hope to award the contract to the lowest bidder by next year to build the boats between 2006 and 2007," the official said.
According to the official, the administration currently has one 55-tonne ship, which was converted to clean oil spills.
The administration plans to build a 600-tonne ship to join the operation.
The administration is also planning to build a 2,000-tonne advanced multirole rescue ship, capable of search-and-rescue, firefighting and salvage operations.
Although oil spills fall under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Administration and rescue efforts are the responsibility of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the two agencies are not equipped with any ships to carry out the duties.
In addition to the two ships, the administration is also planning to build a 3,000-tonne blue-water fishery cutter to replace three 500-tonne blue-water fishery cutters, which are over 10 years old.
In a bid to help the nation's booming blue-water fishing industry, the official said that the government is obliged to fulfill the legal requirements of international fishing conventions as well as the membership duties of international fishing commissions.
Ranking second worldwide in the size of its tuna catch and third in the size of its squid catch, Taiwan is a commission member of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Convention (WCPFC) and a cooperating non-member of the Convention on the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT).
The western and central Pacific Ocean produces more than half of the world's annual tuna catch, with an annual landed value of between US$1.5 billion and US$2 billion.
Although the stocks of tuna in the area are not currently considered overfished, the WCPFC establishes conservation and management measures to be adhered to by all countries and fishing entities with vessels operating in the region.
To ensure the conservation and optimum utilization of the southern blue-fin tuna fishery, the CCSBT sets a total allowable catch and decides how the catch is allocated among members.
The main nations fishing for southern blue-fin tuna, Australia, Japan and New Zealand, apply strict quotas to their fishing fleets.
The principal non-member nations are South Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan. Cooperating non-members participate fully in the business of the CCSBT but cannot vote.
A cooperating non-member requires adherence to the management and conservation objectives of the CCSBT and agrees to catch limits.
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