The deepsea fishing industry in Taiwan is facing a crisis because of precipitous drops in its squid and saury catch. In 2009, the squid catch fell 71.4% and the saury catch fell 25.3%, dealing a harsh blow to a sector still suffering the impact of a 2005 cut in the country''s tuna fishing quota.
Taiwan is the leading squid and saury supplier in the world, and the catch of these two species accounted for 45.9% of the country's deepsea fishing haul in 2008, according to the Fisheries Agency's 2009 Fisheries Statistical Yearbook published in July.
But the decline has continued to deepen this year. Taiwanese vessels captured only 30,000 tonnes during this year's fishing season ending in June, not even half of the 68,746 tonnes caught in 2009.
The main reason for the fall is that Taiwanese fishing boats have been unable to secure decent squid catches in the south-west Atlantic Ocean near the Falkland Islands and Argentina — the world's main squid fishery.
It is unknown whether the plunge is just a cyclical change or a warning sign that marine resources are drying up. Local Argentine fishermen are also pondering the mystery as their catch has dropped 68% year-on-year, according to the Inter Press Service (IPS).
Chiu Tai-sheng, a professor in National Taiwan University's Institute of Zoology, said historical data on squid catches in the south-west Atlantic show a production cycle of five to six years.
The previous low point for Taiwan's squid catch in the area came in 2004, when Taiwanese fishermen caught less than 10,000 tonnes.
Chiu said that compared to the average catch of 150,000-160,000 tonnes a year in the past, which accounts for one-third of the world's production, fishermen may have overfished by catching nearly 300,000 tonnes of squid in 2007 and 240,000 tonnes in 2008.
The contentious history between Argentina and Britain over the Falkland Islands has resulted in the lack of an organisation overseeing and regulating squid fishing in the region, the IPS said, which may have helped contribute to overfishing.
Chiu said climate change may also have contributed to the declining returns.
In Taiwan, the fall in supply has affected people's everyday lives, as squid is now hardly found in local supermarkets. Food vendors have raised the price of squid dishes or stopped offering them altogether.
[Source: The China Post]
