Sashimi made from freshly caught Pacific Ocean blue-finned tuna is a succulent treat that almost melts in the mouth.
However, overfishing is having a harmful impact on tuna and other fish populations and Taiwan must work with other nations around the globe to preserve the stock for future generations, fisheries agency officials said yesterday.
"There might not be any tuna for our children to enjoy if we don't act now," said James Sha (沙志一), deputy director-general of the Council of Agriculture's fisheries agency.
Working to guidelines from various international fishing stock regulatory bodies, the agency has been mandating the installation of vessel monitoring systems (VMS) on smaller and smaller fishing boats.
All Taiwanese vessels over 90 tonnes are currently fitted with the tracking devices, which monitor the vessel's movements, the amount of fish caught and even the types of hooks being used.
"Within three years we hope to fit all vessels above 18 tonnes with VMS," said Sha at a public hearing convened by Keelung Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Shao-ping (徐少萍).
Notorious
Taiwan is notorious internationally for its fleets of small fishing vessels that scour the world's oceans in search of a catch, he said.
"We fish the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean ... all in tiny seafaring vessels. No other country in the world does this," said Sha, "this is why there is enormous pressure for us to regulate our smaller vessels."
Fishermen's groups, however, complained about the agency's plans.
"Times are hard enough for those of us who fish for a living," said Oung Chin-shou (翁進壽) of the Kaohsiung Fishermen's Association.
Oung said he would like the government to foot the bill for the tracking devices, which would cost around NT$50,000 to install and NT$10,000 to NT$20,000 to maintain. There are already subsidies in place to encourage fishermen to install the devices sooner rather than later.
"A big head of [bluefin] tuna can fetch more than a NT$1 million at a fish market," said Sha, "You tell me if the cost of the devices are an unreasonable burden."
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the