Government to abide by ICCAT order to slash bigeye tuna catch

This article was written by Bowun Jhu and published by the Taiwan Journal on December 9, 2005. It reports that Taiwan's Council of Agriculture recently announced that it would cooperate with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna and cut the nation's catch of bigeye tuna, or Thunnus obesus, by almost 70 percent. This means the catch would drop from the current 14,900 tonnes annually to only 4,600 tonnes in 2006.

Regarding various reports of overfishing of Atlantic tuna by Taiwanese fishing fleets, the Council of Agriculture said that it would provide all possible assistance to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna to see that fishermen caught engaging in illegal activities are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Specifically, Taiwan would reduce the size of its Atlantic bigeye tuna fleet from 76 vessels to 15. Furthermore, 41 of Taiwan's bigeye tuna vessels currently operating in the Atlantic would cease their operations, while another 20 would switch to catching other types of fish. A list of the remaining 15 vessels would be forward to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna for its record.

Currently, Taiwan is the world's third-largest fish catcher by country, after Indonesia and Japan. The Council of Agriculture estimated that cooperation with the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna would coast Taiwan's fishing industry about US$300 million.

More details about the development of and challenges faced by Taiwan's fishing industry are provided in this article.