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Boat hijacking raises questions

The suspected hijacking of a Taiwanese fishing boat by foreign crewmen has once again brought into focus the fact that many of the country’s fishing boats are now entirely staffed by foreign workers, which could create the possibility of ethnic conflict and mutiny.

The Pingtung-registered Taiyishiang (泰億祥), a tuna boat that left Taiwan on July 12 heading for the mid-Pacific Ocean, has been out of contact since last Tuesday, said the Fisheries Agency deep seas fisheries division deputy director Huang Hung-yan (黃鴻燕).

While 48-year-old captain Lee Feng-pao (李豐寶) is Taiwanese, the rest of the crew, eight fishermen, are Indonesian, he said.

The missing report was not filed until Sunday because “communication at sea is not always stable [so] Lee’s family did not report him as missing until Sunday,” Huang said.

The agency then began a series of emergency responses, Huang said.

“Because the boat is now traveling off track and is [1,111km] from Indonesia [or 852km from Taiwan], we have deduced that it is quite possible the boat has been hijacked,” he said.

Luckily, the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) on the boat is still turned on so the the agency can still trace the boat’s location, information it has shared with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Huang said. He also said that he hoped the Indonesian government would help in intercepting the boat.

The agency has also contacted the Coast Guard Administration to inquire about the possibility of sending jet vessels to catch up with the missing boat, he said, adding, “We have also radioed all Taiwanese fishing boats in close proximity to help locate Taiyishiang.”

However, the episode may have also inadvertently revealed a rising problem with Taiwan’s fisheries, as Pingtung County’s Liouciou Township (琉球) fisheries association director Tsai Pao-shing (蔡寶興) told the Taipei Times via telephone that many Taiwanese fishing boats are now manned by one Taiwanese captain and all-foreign crews.

“A fishing trip usually takes several months … With routine work and the pressure of not catching fish, everybody has mood swings — but because of cultural differences and the language barrier, conflicts occur; each year in the past few years, a few boats would be hijacked and the Taiwanese captain killed or robbed,” he said.

Asked why fishermen still hired from abroad, Tsai said, “Fishing is hard work; all experienced captains tell their sons to go to school and get office jobs instead. What’s more, with the recent increase in oil prices and the stagnant fish prices, most fishermen now hire foreign help to lower costs,” he said.

The short-term solution, Tsai suggested, is to loosen regulations for hiring Chinese fishermen.

“While they may not cause less trouble, with the same language we would at least get along better,” he said.

However, the long term solution would depend on the government’s support of training in the industry, so that, “Youngsters would be willing to go onto fishing boats,” he said.

Tsai, who is a friend of Lee’s, also blasted both the ministry and the Fisheries Agency for their slow reaction.

“The VMS says that the boat is approaching the Philippines, not Indonesia,” he said.

“When you are trying to save a life, time is precious. It is ridiculous to try to send a boat from Taiwan; asking other fishing boats is also not an option — the abductors could be armed, so the best way is to ask the Philippine government to save Lee by sending send sea patrols,” he said.
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