The Regulation Group of Agriculture Committee under Administrative Yuan had passed the modified rule of regulation no. 26 verse 2, ‘The permission of building fisher boats and the standard of issuing fishing certification’. This modification, matching the trend of international fishery industry management, greatly looses the conditions of foreign ship made by Taiwan to be able to register in Taiwan.
The Fisher Agency of Agriculture Committee under Administrative Yuan stated that due to worsening situation of uncontrolled, unreported, and illegal fishing boats damaging the fishery resources, the problem had caught the attentions of international fishery organizations and relevant countries. The World Sustainable Development meeting in 2002 in Johannesburg officially stated that each participating country should devoted solving this problem before 2004. Organizations like The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) had in July this year started executed the system of white name lists. And each participating country would jointly punish the fishing boats that were not listed on the lists.
For the time being, big size skipjack tuna catching fishing boats were own by Taiwanese. As the result, in order for Japan and Taiwan jointly solving this problem, both countries on February 1990 signed the agreement of joint actions. According the agreement, Japanese took the responsibilities of breaking up the second hand Japan-exported fishing boat, and Taiwanese were responsible for providing legal routes for foreign ships made by Taiwan to be able to register in Taiwan. For accomplishing that, the Committee had twice modified the rule of ‘The permission of building fisher boats and the standard of issuing fishing certification’. Since then, there were 41 Taiwan made foreign fishing boats approved to be imported into Taiwan. However, there were still around 80 Taiwan made foreign fishing boats operating outside. Even worse, those boats by using the legal status given by Taiwan government undertook international fish smuggling. Those boats that were harshly condemned by international organizations underpin the privilege of Taiwanese legal operating fishing boats. As a result, Taiwan government was in urgent need to find a more active solution.
In order to find the all-around solution, the Heads of Fishery Department from Japan and Taiwan would hold a meeting on April this year to decide the new plan of joint actions. On the one hand, Japan would issue the ship plates and, by using the way of leasing, those problematic fishing boats would be managed by the home country. On the other hand, Taiwan would modify the rule of ‘The permission of building fisher boats and the standard of issuing fishing certification’, which would further widen the existing rule and encourage those boats to be registered in Taiwan. Furthermore, Japan and Taiwan both demanded the Taiwan made foreign boats to strictly follow the new rule for protecting the sustainable operations of world skipjack tuna resources.