A dozen fishermen yesterday demanded that the government relax compensation requirements for fishery damage caused by a cold front last month, after the aquaculture sector suffered a record loss of more than NT$3.16 billion (US$93.82 million).
During a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei, fishermen from Yunlin, Chiayi and Pingtung counties, as well as Tainan and Kaohsiung, said the cold spell devastated almost all stock at fish farms in central and southern Taiwan, including those of high economic value, such as grouper, bass, eel and clams, in addition to milkfish, which was hardest hit by the weather.
The remains of large fish, such as groupers, have recently begun floating up to the surface, revealing more extensive damage than previously estimated, the fishermen said, adding that they have been removing dead fish from ponds to prevent them from rotting and contaminating the water.
The cold front was the most devastating in the nation’s history, with agricultural losses reaching NT$3.89 billion as of yesterday and the fishery sector sustaining losses of NT$3.16 billion, the Council of Agriculture said.
Aquaculture Development Association director Hsu Huang-chou (許煌周) asked the Fisheries Agency to relax compensation requirements, saying: “Fishermen are required to have three documents — an aquaculture certificate, a farming registration document and a water rights certificate — to be eligible for the agency’s cash grant and low interest rate loan, but in practice, only about 40 percent of the nation’s fishermen are fully licensed, while the rest have been engaged in de facto farming. The government should accept all applications considering the severity and magnitude of the disaster.”
Hsu also asked that the deadline for compensation applications be extended from tomorrow to after the Lunar New Year, as fishermen are still removing dead fish and need more time to prepare their paperwork.
Fishermen are to receive compensation of NT$115,000 per hectare of milkfish or clam ponds and NT$380,000 per hectare of grouper ponds, but that only constitutes about one-10th of their losses, he said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Su Chih-feng (蘇治芬) said the Executive Yuan should re-examine the compensation package for the aquaculture sector and establish a special relief program to compensate both fully and partially licensed farmers.
In response, agency Deputy Director Wang Cheng-fang (王正芳) said the requirements for compensation had already been relaxed to provide relief loans to fishermen without complete documentation, but he declined to offer cash grants or extend the deadline.
Legislators and fish farming lobbyists plan to visit Premier Simon Chang (張善政) today to ask the Executive Yuan to use the secondary reserve fund to help fishermen recover from the disaster.
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