Fisheries Agency orders compulsory tuna fleet cutback

This article was written by Yu-jing Wu and published by the Taiwan Journal on October 7, 2005. According to this article, the Fisheries Agency of the Council of Agriculture recently announced that it had launched a mandatory fishing vessel reduction program. By the end of 2006, a total of 120 tuna long-line vessels, or 20 percent of those Taiwan-registry long-liners operating in oceans around the world, will be scraped.

In 2003, the worldwide tuna catch was 6.3 million metric tons. Taiwan's take amounted to 526,000 metric tons, ranking third after Indonesia and Japan. Approximately 70 percent, or 368,000 metric tons, of Taiwan's tuna catch was by long-line vessels.

According to the Fisheries Agency, the government decides to reduce Taiwan's tuna long-line vessels as it recognizes the need to conserve the world's fish stocks. Taiwan is a willing participant of the International Plan of Action for the Management of Fish Capacity, which was adopted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in 1999. The plan calls for a global reduction of tuna long-line fishing vessels by 20 to 30 percent.

The government will compensate the owners of those vessels whose licenses will be canceled. At the current legally stipulated compensation rate, the total compensation will amount to about US$125 million.

In recent decades Taiwan has been working with international fishery management organizations to achieve the objectives of responsible resource conservation and sustainable fishery development. For example, in 1989, the government set a limit on the total number and tonnage of fishing vessels of all types. In 1995, it decided to forbid the replacement of fishing vessels sold to other countries. Over the periods of 1991-1995 and 2000-2004, the government implemented a buyback program, which resulted in a 20-percent reduction of Taiwan's fishing fleet from 19,000 to 15,000 vessels.