The majority of Taiwan’s long-distance saury fishing vessels have switched to LEDs for environmental reasons, the Kaohsiung City Government’s Marine Bureau said on Tuesday.
The methods fishers use to catch squid or saury are similar, the bureau said.
Some boats travel to the Southwest Atlantic to fish for squid in the first half of the year, return and then venture out again to fish for saury in the north Pacific in the months following, it said.
Photo: courtesy of the Kaohsiung City Government’s Marine Bureau
Fishing for saury happens at night, with artificial light playing an important role in attracting them, the bureau said.
In the past, fishers often used incandescent light bulbs or high-intensity discharge (HID) lamps, but they tend to consume a lot of energy, the bureau said.
Incandescent bulbs and HIDs also wear out faster and must be replaced more often than LEDs, so most operators have since switched to LEDs, which last longer and use less power.
Saury fishing boats that are registered in Kaohsiung have since the end of last month been returning to Cianjhen Fishing Port (前鎮漁港) from north of the Pacific Ocean, the bureau said.
Taiwan’s total saury catch in 2021 was about 30,000 tonnes, while last year it was about 40,000 tonnes, a Fisheries Agency news release said in March.
Citing the North Pacific Fisheries Commission, the agency said that about 90 long-distance Taiwanese saury vessels operate in the northwest Pacific every year from June to November.
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