Hundreds of fishers yesterday held a protest demanding that TS Lines Co compensate their losses due to marine pollution caused by fuel that spilled from one of its cargo ships nearly two years ago.
The ship laden with 617 containers ran aground off New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) on its way to the Port of Taichung (台中港) on March 10, 2016.
The ship split in two on March 24, causing an oil spill that polluted a 2km stretch of the northern coastline.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
About 400 fishers from the city’s Jinshan (金山) and Wanli (萬里) districts protested in front of the company’s headquarters in Taipei.
The oil spill affected the livelihood of about 10,000 fishers in the two districts, but they have not been adequately compensated by TS Lines, Fishery Heritage Preservation Platform chief executive officer Kuo Ching-lin (郭慶霖) said.
The company is offering to pay only NT$17 million (US$580,066) — 10 percent of what the fishers have claimed — as the March 10 deadline for the period for claiming compensation nears, he said.
The fishers’ claim of NT$170 million is based on the calculations of National Taiwan Ocean University professor Ou Ching-hsien (歐慶賢), he added.
The company has paid more than NT$600 million since the incident and it would continue negotiating with the fishers with utmost sincerity to achieve a mutually beneficial result, company vice president Tu Hung-lin (涂鴻麟) said.
Tu also apologized to the fishers for the inconvenience caused by the incident, which sparked more heated protests.
The company paid the NT$600 million to government agencies and did not reimburse the losses sustained by the fishers, who can barely catch any fish along the coastline since the incident, New Power Party Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.
As the fishers failed to present legal documentation to prove their actual losses, the company cannot agree to their demands, the company’s public relations representative Chang Li-li (張莉莉) said, adding that its compensation offer is based on a study by National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology.
However, the company might attend a negotiation platform convened by the Council of Agriculture, Chang said after being pressured by Huang.
The council would invite the company and the Maritime Port Bureau for another round of negotiations this week, council Deputy Minister Huang Chin-cheng (黃金城) told the fishers.
The company has paid NT$6 million for direct damage to fishers’ equipment, Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Wang Cheng-fang (王正芳) said.
The agency has sued the company demanding NT$470 million compensation and the case reached an administrative court late last year, he said, adding that the compensation would be used to restore damaged public fishery resources.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner