Yunlin County Commissioner Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) yesterday called on the central government to establish a special relief program for oyster farmers who suffered losses because of Typhoon Soudelor and to return fishing rights along the county’s coastline to local residents.
Only about 20 percent of the oyster farmers in the typhoon-ravaged county are eligible for disaster relief because the rest do not hold fishery rights along coastal regions that are zoned as industrial districts.
Soudelor proved to be the most devastating disaster for the county’s oyster culture in the past 10 years, Yunlin Fishermen’s Association official Tsai Wen-tung (蔡文東) said.
Tsai said that 90 percent of oyster farmers’ offshore floating rafts, 20 percent of horizontal racks and 30 percent of vertical racks were damaged during the storm, causing losses of NT$140 million (US$4.29 million), in addition to the NT$80 million in lost oysters.
Yunlin’s total agricultural losses have hit NT$510 million, and the Council of Agriculture has designated the county as eligible for cash relief.
However, Lee said that out of the 500 oyster farmers in the county, only about 100 hold fishing rights and are therefore eligible for relief measures.
Waters off the coasts of Kouhu (口湖), Sihu (西湖) and Taisi (台西) townships were traditionally oyster farming areas, but were zoned as offshore industrial areas in 1991, which severely restricts fishing and oyster farming in the area, Lee said.
Even though there has been no industrial development in the three townships for 11 years, the Industrial Development Bureau has refused to ease the restriction, thereby excluding most of the county’s oyster farmers from relief measures, Lee said.
“The central government is a dog in the manger because it has not developed the areas after they were designated for industrial use, but yet it refuses to deregulate the areas,” Lee said.
The Yunlin County Government called on the central government to return the sea to local residents, establish a special relief program for oyster farmers without fishing rights and deregulate undeveloped areas designated as industrial districts so that oyster farming in those areas can be legalized.
However, Fisheries Agency Deputy Director Huang Hung-yan (黃鴻燕) said that unauthorized oyster farming in Yunlin’s offshore industrial areas has been a longstanding problem, and oyster culture is legally prohibited in places designated for industrial use.
The redesignation of such areas or reopening of them to fishing rights would require discussions between the central and local governments, while the agency can only act according to the law.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern