The Fisheries Agency on Friday said that 15 amendments to three fishery acts are to take effect on Friday next week as planned.
The measures are part of the government’s bid to get Taiwan removed from the EU’s fishery watch list of nations that it says have not done enough to prevent illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.
The agency discussed the amendments to the acts with visiting officials from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries to ensure that they are adequate, Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Huang Hung-yan (黃鴻燕) said.
The officials urged Taiwan to present an action plan on enforcing the 15 amendments after they are implemented and said the EU would decide whether to remove Taiwan from the watch list based on how the measures are carried out, the Deep Sea Fisheries Division said.
In October 2015, the European Commission gave Taiwan a “yellow card” and warned that the nation risks being identified as uncooperative in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
The warning followed a Greenpeace report that a Taiwanese fishing vessel, the Shuen De Ching No. 888, had been seen illegally harvesting shark fins and throwing the finned sharks back into the water near Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific.
If the issue is not addressed by the end of March, Taiwan would risk the imposition of EU trade sanctions.
To step up the nation’s efforts against illegal fishing by deep-sea vessels, the Legislative Yuan passed the Act Governing Distant Water Fisheries (遠洋漁業條例) and amended the Fisheries Act (漁業法) and the Act to Govern Investment in the Operation of Foreign Flag Fishing Vessels (投資經營非我國籍漁船管理條例) last year.
Under the terms of the measures, if convicted of illegal fishing, vessels of more than 500 tonnes may be fined from NT$6 million to NT$30 million (US$189,861 to US$949,307), while those from 100 tonnes to 500 tonnes could be fined from NT$4 million to NT$20 million.
Vessels between 50 tonnes and 100 tonnes may be fined from NT$2 million to NT$10 million, while those under 50 tonnes may be fined from NT$1 million to NT$5 million.
Repeat offenders may face fines of up to NT$45 million.
In addition to the fines, the operators and fishermen may have their licenses recalled or revoked.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS