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Cold weather devastates Penghu's cobia fisheries

Fishermen dump frozen milk fish outside a fish dealership in Yunlin County yesterday. Approximately 20,000 milk fish have died or been injured by the recent chilly weather. PHOTO: CHUANG YU-FENG, TAIPEI TIMES

The recent cold weather has spelt disaster for both fisheries and coastal marine habitats. Marine experts say that "more than 300" varieties of fish, unable to tolerate the cold water temperatures, have been turning belly-up en masse near the outlying island of Penghu alone.

The Council of Agriculture estimated yesterday that the bulk of the economic damage has occurred at the cobia fisheries off the shores of Penghu, with the estimated damage in excess of NT$77 million (US$2.41 million).

The fish, a gourmet favorite, have perished in water temperatures as cold as 9oC over the past few days.

"All the cobia in the water have essentially been wiped out," said Tsai Wann-sheng (蔡萬生), the director of the Penghu Fisheries Research Institute. "The damage has been devastating."

Tsai said 90 percent of the fish farmed near Penghu are cobia, a species that cannot tolerate sustained periods of water temperatures below 15oC.

Farmed fish are not the only ones to have fallen victim to the cold. Tsai said the impact to fish living near the coral reef off Penghu was the "worst in 30 years" after looking at historical data.

"The ocean typically offers a temperature buffer for marine fish," Tsai said. "But this year's unusual and sustained cold means that we haven't had a winter this bad since 1978. We are seeing dead fish everywhere, perhaps 300 species have been seriously affected by the cold."

Television footage from cable network TVBS showed Penghu residents in weather-resistant gear scooping groupers, eels and other valuable edible fish that have perished from the cold spell from the water to sell. Their full baskets of fish would fetch "a few thousand," the newscaster said.

Tsai said the one-time windfall could bring years of depleted fish stocks.

"I don't know how long the fish population will take to recover," Tsai said. "Stock will be low for at least a couple of years. In the worst case scenario, entire species could be wiped out from some areas. If this is the case, the rebuilding process will be very slow."

Elsewhere, cable network ETToday reported yesterday that an estimated 40 percent of the milk fish (虱目魚) crop in Yunlin County might also be lost to the cold weather.
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