A ban on fishing for great white sharks, megamouth sharks and basking sharks took effect on Tuesday as part of efforts to preserve biological diversity, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said on the same day.
The ban, which is applicable to all Taiwanese fishing vessels, regardless of where they operate, requires all vessels that inadvertently catch the sharks to release them back into the sea whether dead or alive, the council said in a press release.
Those who contravene the regulation would face a maximum three-year prison sentence and a fine of NT$150,000 in accordance with the Fisheries Act (漁業法), it said.
Photo courtesy of the Council of Agriculture’s Fisheries Agency
Vessels are obliged to report accidental catches of the sharks, including location and time of the catch, to local fisheries authorities within one day of returning to Taiwanese ports, the council said.
Non-compliance with the requirements would lead to fines from NT$30,000 to NT$150,000, it added.
Researchers who catch the sharks for scientific purposes would be exempt from the new rule, the council said.
Great white sharks and basking sharks are listed as a “vulnerable species” and an “endangered species” respectively by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Although megamouth sharks have since November 2018 been classified as of “least concern,” the organization suggested that Taiwan require its vessels to release accidentally caught megamouth sharks.
Taiwan in 2013 introduced requirements that catches of the three shark species be reported. At that time, such catches were legal, but vessels that were found to have failed to report them were fined NT$30,000 to NT$150,000.
A reported 34 great white sharks and 139 megamouth sharks have been caught by Taiwanese vessels since 2013.
The ban was applauded by the Taipei-based non-profit organization Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan (EAST), which has for years pushed for the protection of megamouth sharks.
EAST chief executive Shih Wu-hung (釋悟泓) said that the ban is an important decision to help preserve the shark population.
Saving megamouth sharks is of great urgency in the nation, as they between April and August migrate in the waters off Taiwan’s east coast.
Since the megamouth shark was discovered and named in 1976, only 226 of the species have been recorded around the world, with 146 of them caught off Taiwan, Shih said, adding that the government should add the species to a protected list.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS