The Ocean Conservation Administration (OCA) yesterday said it needs more data to decide whether to protect megamouth sharks, after an animal protection group said fishing vessels have been catching the species without restrictions.
A drift net vessel this week caught six of the deep-water sharks over four consecutive days off the coast of Hualien County, the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST) wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
In 2018 and last year, another three vessels caught a total of 72 megamouth sharks, including 70 off Hualien and two off Yilan County, it wrote.
Photo provided by the Ocean Conservation Administration
As big as the protected whale sharks species, megamouth sharks are rarer, as only 226 have been documented since they were discovered and named in 1976, and 145 have been caught near Taiwan, EAST wrote.
Accusing the four vessels of purposely catching the sharks, the group urged the OCA and the Fisheries Agency to ban capturing the sharks, saying that the waters off the east coast have become a graveyard for the species due to government inaction.
The agencies said they need more data to decide whether to designate megamouth sharks as a protected species.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources lists the species under “least concern,” the OCA said.
In July last year, the agency formed a work group with the Fisheries Agency, the Coast Guard Administration, experts and civic groups to promote the stock assessment and conservation of megamouth sharks, the OCA said.
It said it would work with fishers to install devices on the sharks to track their migratory paths.
Promoting the conservation of cartilaginous fishes has been the agency’s task since its founding in 2018, it said, adding that it listed whale sharks and giant oceanic manta rays as protected species on June 1.
As it takes time to complete the legal process of granting a species protected status, the Fisheries Agency could first restrict vessels’ activities if it deems they are detrimental to a species, just as it had done with whale sharks, OCA senior specialist Ko Yung-chuan (柯勇全) said.
Designating a species as protected without solid scientific evidence risks creating conflicts and setting a poor standard, Ko said.
The Fisheries Agency in 2013 started requiring fishers to file reports when catching megamouth sharks, and 136 have been reported since then, Fisheries Regulation Division chief Liu Fu-sheng (劉福昇) said.
Fishers can trade the sharks after filing reports, Liu said.
The agency needs more evidence to impose any restrictions, he said, adding that it continues to participate in the OCA work group.
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
Recent movements by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been “highly unusual,” but the military maintains a grasp of the situation, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said on Friday, after the military for the first time said it was monitoring troop movements in China’s Dacheng Bay (大埕灣). The minister gave the remarks to reporters before appearing at the legislature on the first day of its new session. The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday evening released an air force surveillance photograph of a PLA Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and said it was monitoring the PLA Rocket Force and ground
RSS