Many migrant fishers in Pingtung County’s Donggang Township (東港) were illegally made to stay on their fishing vessels on Thursday, despite the county government ordering that they be evacuated and provided shelter from Typhoon Krathon, a fishers’ association representative said.
Many Indonesian fishers in Donggang were ordered by their Taiwanese employers to stay onboard to guard their ships in case powerful winds brought by Krathon broke the mooring lines, which would cause them to drift out to sea, said Achmad Mudzakir, the head of FOSPI, the largest Indonesian fishers’ association in Taiwan.
These included crew members of distant-water fishing and coastal fishing boats, he added.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
The Central Weather Administration issued a strong wind advisory for Pingtung on Thursday, with level 9 to 10 gusts recorded on the Hengchun Peninsula.
Muslimin, an Indonesian crew member on a coastal fishing vessel, said he and two other crew members were made to guard their ship from Wednesday until Thursday, despite the Kaohsiung City Government ordering all fishing vessels under 100 tonnes be evacuated on Tuesday.
Muslimin said his fishing vessel was in the “CT3” category, meaning it weighed between 20 and 50 tonnes.
The strong winds had been rocking his ship so violently that even the short trip to the onboard bathroom was “scary,” Muslimin said.
Commenting on the issue, the Fisheries Agency’s Fisheries Manpower Division head Hsueh Po-yuan (薛博元) said under the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act (災害防救法), local governments can issue evacuation orders for crew members in the event of a natural disaster, and once such an order has been given, shipowners must take their crews to a shelter.
Shipowners found to have disobeyed evacuation orders could be fined NT$50,000 to NT$250,000 (US$1,565.63 to US$7,828.16) by the local government, he said.
However, Pingtung County’s Marine and Fisheries Management Office official Hsieh Chun-yi (謝俊億) said he would have to consult with the Fisheries Agency to determine whether to fine shipowners who flouted the evacuation order, citing challenges in enforcing the rule that has left his agency in a “conundrum.”
Hsieh on Wednesday said they had allowed the migrant crew members to remain on the ships despite Krathon making landfall near Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) after the agency contacted the Taiwan Tuna Longline Association and other relevant fisheries associations in the area, who expressed grave concerns over mooring lines breaking.
“Migrant crew members and their Taiwanese shipowners were staying on the ships,” he added.
“The winds and rain are still very strong, and they are very worried,” Hsieh said. “If the lines break, the ships would float around and bump into other ships nearby, especially during typhoons when fishing ports are more crowded than usual.”
Hsieh said his agency acknowledged that crew members should be allowed to go on land and that they would consult with the Fisheries Agency and fisheries associations to explore the possibility of revising relevant rules to address this kind of “special circumstance.”
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