Damage to Penghu fisheries severe

The abnormal cold spell of the past several weeks has had such a devastating impact on the fishery industry in the Penghu island chain that it could take years for the industry to fully recover.

The subtropical Penghu island group, also known as the Pescadores, is located about 50km west of Taiwan proper. The archipelago consists of 90 islands, only 19 of which are inhabited. The area is rich in fishery resources and has been termed a "paradise for scuba divers."

The recent cold weather, with temperatures dipping to below 9oC, has caused massive damage to both the marine ecology in Penghu's coastal waters and the local net cage fish farming industry.

During a beach cleaning campaign led by Penghu County Commissioner Wang Chien-fa (王乾發), county government officials and residents removed about 50 tonnes of fish carcasses from the beaches of Penghu's inhabited islands.

Members of the Penghu Scuba Diving Association who examined the coastal waters around Makung Island (媽公), the largest island in the archipelago, made an even more alarming discovery when they came upon what was probably 10 times as many dead fish on the sea bed.

Association president Cheng Cheng-kang (鄭正綱) and two other divers said they saw large numbers of many species of dead fish as they swam around the coastal waters and that some of the carcasses had already began to rot.

Cheng said he was worried that as the temperature begins to rise, the high nutrient levels in the water could cause algal blooms, which could lead to a red tide, with toxins from the algae contaminating marine life and posing a hazard to human health.

Tsai Wann-sheng (蔡萬生), director of the Penghu Fisheries Research Institute, described the damage to Penghu's fishery industry as "the worst in 30 years." He said the recent cold weather -- unseen since 1978 -- might have seriously affected as many as 300 fish species.

With the risk for a red tide a real one, Tsai urged Environmental Protection Bureau officials to closely monitor the quality of seawater around Penghu's coasts and to take necessary precautionary measures to prevent algal blooms.

Chen Ying-nan (陳英男), chairman of the Department of Aquaculture at National Penghu University, said the adverse impact on Penghu's marine ecology would be felt for the next couple of years, although the exact magnitude of the catastrophe had yet to be assessed.

"We expect ... the ocean to use the power of nature to repair itself," he said.

Meanwhile, statistics compiled by the Penghu County Government showed that the cold spell had killed more than 1,500 tonnes, or over 80 percent, of the fish yields in the county's net cage fish farms, with losses totaling more than NT$180 million (US$5.75 million). Cobia, a high-value cage culture species, was the most affected.

If shellfish are included, the total damage is estimated to exceed 3,000 tonnes.

Cheng Ming-yuan (鄭明源), director of the Penghu county government's Agriculture and Fisheries Bureau, estimated that the county government would need NT$178 million to help revive Penghu's net cage fish farming industry and NT$58 million to fund marine conservation programs to allow the release of large amounts of young fish of all kinds into the ocean.

Another NT$167 million would be needed to provide natural disaster relief and low-interest emergency loans to fish farmers in order to help them get back on their feet, he said.