Several hundred fishermen from across Taiwan voiced strong opposition on Monday to a proposal by lawmakers to ban trawling in coastal and offshore sea areas, saying that the move would hurt more than 100,000 people who rely on fishing for their living.
Chiang Hsin-lun (江欣倫), a fisherman from Yilan County, said at a public hearing on the proposal by the Fisheries Agency in Taipei that there are about 15,000 trawlers in Taiwan that operate in offshore waters and off coasts.
Seventy percent of what those fishermen catch is sold to the aquaculture industry as feed, and the rest is sold for culinary use, accounting for between 50 percent and 60 percent of the fish sold in traditional markets, Chiang said.
Banning trawling would hurt the livelihoods of 100,000 people working in the sector, an impact that would be “massive,” the fisherman said.
Trawling involves dragging nets behind a boat and catching everything that comes in contact with the nets.
Environmentalists oppose the practice because it is not selective — much of the catch are not species that were targeted.
Bottom trawling, in which the net is dragged along the floor of the ocean, is considered particularly damaging to the sea floor and the marine ecosystem.
Some fishermen tried to fight the proposed ban by suggesting instead the introduction of a fishing moratorium.
“Trawling is seasonal. They do not do that all year round,” a participating fisherman said.
The public hearing, hosted by Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Chen Jyun-ru (陳君如), took place after lawmakers on the legislature’s Economics Committee asked the government to study the feasibility of banning trawling to promote resource sustainability.
Also attending the event were representatives of environmental groups, including Greenpeace and the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan.
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