Taiwan’s seeks closer cooperation with fishery-rich island nations

Hijacked 65 nautical miles southeast off the island of Seychelles on 27 March, the Naham 3 is the tenth Taiwanese fishing boat that Somali pirates have attacked since 2005, in spite of efforts by navies of various countries to protect fishing vessels and merchant shipping in the Gulf of Aden, which links the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.

The rising number of Somali pirate attacks have had a serious impact on Taiwan’s deep sea fishing industry, resulting in tuna fishing boats being withdrawn from the Indian Ocean and a consequent drop in the republic’s tuna fishing catch.

“Somali pirates have had a big effect on our tuna fleet especially in the western region of the Indian Ocean,” explained a spokesman at Taiwan’s Fisheries Administration which is part of the Council of Agriculture under the Executive Yuan (Parliament).

“In 2011 a fishing vessel was captured and used by pirates as a mother ship to attack merchant ships. Three pirates were killed after the US navy discovered this. The Taiwanese captain died as well. This is the first Taiwanese fishermen death due to piracy.”

Already an estimated 30-50 Taiwanese tuna fishing vessels have returned to their home ports due to worsening piracy problems. The impact on overall fisheries production is growing as tuna species account for an important share of Taiwan’s distant water catch which forms a major part of the republic’s fisheries sector.

Production rises
In 2010 Taiwan’s total fisheries production rose 7% to reach 1.17 million metric tons (mt) compared with 1.09 million mt the previous year. Total fisheries production value grew 8% to reach NT$92.5 billion in 2010 compared with $85.6 billion the previous year.

According to Taiwan’s Fisheries Administration, the distant waters catch accounted for 60% of total fisheries production by volume in 2010 and 47% by value.

The total tuna longline catch in 2010 was 218,500mt, up 2% compared with the previous year, while tuna purse seiners caught 199,000mt, registering a 3.6% increase compared with 2009.

In spite of the growth in fisheries production in 2010, Taiwan’s fisheries sector already has entered a long term decline.

“Our highest overall annual fisheries production has been 1.3 million mt but in recent years total production has declined by more than 10% to just over 1.1 million mt,” the spokesman said. “Deep sea including tuna, saury and squid is about 60% of our total fishery production but distant waters fisheries such as tuna are not so good due to fuel prices and piracy in Somali waters.”

Saury catch
The 2010 increase in fisheries output was mainly due to the higher distant waters’ saury catch while the coastal and offshore fishing catches declined during the year.

Taiwan’s total distant waters fishing catch reached 688,000mt in 2010, up 12% from 615,000mt the previous year.

Offshore fisheries production fell to 128,000mt in 2010, however, from 147,000mt the previous year, while coastal fisheries production dropped 14% to 35,000mt from 40,000mt in 2009.

“The saury catch was very important in 2010. The distant waters fishing catch was large because our saury catch was at a record high. Most of it was caught on the high seas and in the northern Pacific,” the spokesman said.

“We caught 165,000mt of saury which was exported to South Korea, China, Russia and Europe. We also eat saury in Taiwan.”

Saury is eaten in a variety of dishes. In addition, saury can also be used as bait for tuna longline fishing.

“In 2011 we faced some problems because of the 11 March 2011 Japanese earthquake but our saury catch is not so bad,” the spokesman said. “We estimate our saury catch to be about 150,000mt for 2011 which is good but there is a big annual fluctuation in our saury catch.”

In 2010 Taiwan’s saury catch rose almost 60% from 104,000mt the previous year. In 2008, by contrast, the saury catch was 139,000mt but just 87,000mt in 2007.

Main area
Taiwan’s distant water fishermen cover the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. The main area of activity is the Indian Ocean where about 250 tuna longliners currently are operating. Many longliners land their catch in foreign ports.

“We have fixed our vessels and we need to comply with international measures. In the Atlantic we have 75 bigeye and 49 albacore tuna vessels,” the spokesman said. “We set the vessels depending on the quota we have. We must ensure our fishing capacity is commensurate with our catch quota.

“In the Pacific we reduced our vessels to Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission quota levels.

“Now there are about 1,950 authorised Taiwanese tuna fishing vessels but not all are active. Only about 800 are fishing now.”

From 2005 to 2007 some 183 large scale longline tuna vessels were scrapped under the government’s three year compulsory vessel reduction programme which was implemented in response to requests from various countries as well international fisheries management agencies including those responsible for different regions in the Pacific.

“The capacity scrapped was over 20% of our large scale tuna longliner fleet. The financial situation is not as good now. I don’t think it will be possible to have a compulsory vessel scrapping programme again,” the spokesman remarked.

Apart from saury, production of major distant waters species in 2010 included 171,000mt of skipjack tuna, 67,000mt of yellowfin tuna, 50,000mt of albacore tuna, 50,000mt of bigeye tuna, 62,000mt of mackerel and 60,000mt of squid.

Aquaculture growth
Although marine capture fisheries have entered a long term decline, production of both marine and freshwater aquaculture fisheries continue to grow.

Taiwan’s aquaculture production is largely of higher value species including eels for export to Japan. Inland aquaculture production accounted for 24% of Taiwan’s total fishery production by volume in 2010 and a higher 34% share by value.

In 2010 inland aquaculture production reached 274,000mt, up 7.5% from 255,000mt the previous year. Inland production from brackish water ponds reached 125,000mt, a 6.5% increase over the previous year while fresh water pond production rose 8.5% to 147,000mt.

Marine culture output reached 41,000mt for the year, up 28% from 32,000mt in 2009.

“A favourite fish for aquaculture in Taiwan is the milk fish. Tilapia is another popular species,” the spokesman said. “Popular marine culture fish are grouper which are produced in Pitung and Kaohsiung. Southern Taiwan is our main centre for mariculture.”

Among major aquaculture species, eel output reached 129,000mt in 2010, tilapia 75,000mt and milkfish 36,000mt.

Among marine culture species oyster production reached 36,000mt while grouper output was 12,000mt.

According to the Taiwan’s Fisheries Administration, the republic’s fishing fleet comprises 23,900 vessels of 675,000 total tonnage. Of these 12,800 are powered fishing craft accounting for most of the total tonnage, the rest being small boats for mostly single fishermen.

Foreign crews
Most Taiwanese fishing boats are owned by self employed fishermen aged from 50 to 60 years old. While fishing boat captains and chief engineers are Taiwanese, fishing crews come from various countries including mainland China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Taiwan’s ageing fishermen population numbers 396,000 of which 19,500 are employed in distant water fishing while 67,500 are employed in offshore fisheries. In terms of numbers, coastal fisheries is the largest employer with 192,000 fishermen while 23,500 work in marine culture. A further 86,000 fishermen are involved in inland aquaculture.

Around 75% of fishermen are full time fishermen while the rest fish part time and have other jobs.

“There are not enough fishermen so we recruit in China, Indonesia and the Philippines. Many people do not want to work on a fishing vessel so we have a project to give young graduates a chance to join the fishing industry,” the spokesman said. “We offer NT$1 million (US$33,000) to university graduates to become a crewman or a ship’s engineer for a minimum period. We launched this scheme to attract young graduates to fishing.”

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s fishery processing industry remains small in relation to the size of actual fisheries production. Most processing plants supply the domestic market only.

“Most of our tuna catch is exported to Japan so the vessels transship on the high seas or land their catch in foreign ports,” the spokesman explained. “We do not consume much tuna in Taiwan and most of our skipjack tuna is supplied to Thailand for processing.”

Cooperation
While the government is looking to aquaculture and marine culture to expand fisheries output, the long term development of marine fishing will involve greater cooperation with other countries on a bilateral trade basis and through membership of international fishing organisations.

Among current developments, Taiwan will be a member of the North Pacific Fishing Commission which is due to be set up following agreement in March 2011 on a treaty to establish conservation measures for threatened marine ecosystems in international waters of the North Pacific Ocean.

“Taiwan will be a member as the North Pacific Fishing Commission enters into force dealing with non-migratory fish including saury,” the spokesman said. “The new commission will focus on bottom fishing in the high season though Taiwan does not do this. Taiwan is joining because of saury.”

Taiwan also is joining the South Pacific Regional Fishery Management Organisation for which negotiations were completed in December 2009. The new organisation also deals with non-migratory fish species and focuses on pelagic fish including jack mackerel, scad and bottom fish.

“Taiwan joining because of our interest in squid fisheries in the eastern Pacific as some of our fishing fleet catch flying jumbo squid,” the spokesman said.

Fishing opportunities
Meanwhile, Taiwanese tuna fishing fleet owners already have started to cooperate more closely in future with smaller fishery-rich nations to jointly develop fishing opportunities.

“In future we anticipate lower tuna catch quotas as some countries including Pacific island nations, Indian Ocean islands and African states want to increase their catch and develop their fishing industries,” the spokesman said. “This situation is present especially in Pacific island nations. They want to develop their own fishing fleets by sharing their catch with other countries.

“Joint ventures with Pacific island countries and others will be the trend in future as these countries aspire to develop their own fishery industries in their own waters. This will be the trend of fishing countries that want to keep their fishery industries alive by sharing quota.

“In future Taiwan must cooperate with coastal island countries including transferring some of our fishing fleet to those countries, otherwise there will not be enough fishing quota to support our fishing fleet.”

New cooperation initiatives include Yuh Yow Fisheries Co’s application to Samoa’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to build a new fish processing plant in Apia Port.

Yuh Yow, which owns 47 tuna fishing vessels, already uses Apia Port as a hub for its Pacific Ocean fishing ventures. The company owns and operates tuna processing facilities that include processing plants in Vanuatu and the Solomon islands.

Currently Yuh Yow exports 12,000mt of sashimi grade tuna to Japan each year. In addition the company catches about 2,400mt of albacore tuna a year in the Cook Islands’ waters which is supplied to tuna canneries in Pago Pago in American Samoa.