Taiwan’s embattled US$2 billion (NT$61.7 billion) fishing industry has made more unpleasant headlines over the past month, even as chatter increases that the country’s Fisheries Agency (FA) could be inching closer to reforms aimed at decreasing an alarmingly high rate of environmental and human rights violations on the high seas.
On Feb. 11, five Filipino fishermen went missing after the Taiwan-flagged Jung Ron caught fire off the Falkland Islands. They were never found. On Feb. 20, Taiwan’s coast guard said a deadly knife fight broke out on the Taiwan-flagged Wen Peng (穩鵬號) in the Indian Ocean in which two crew members, one Filipino and one Indonesian, were allegedly killed by another Filipino fisherman who has since been arrested. Six Filipino and Indonesian crew members who jumped overboard remain missing after reportedly jumping into the sea. A search by Taiwan’s Coast Guard, which arrived at the scene days after the incident, was discontinued after 72 hours.
The incidents occurred weeks before European Commission (EC) investigators are scheduled to visit Taiwan and evaluate its progress in monitoring illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Taiwan has operated under a “yellow card” warning from the EC since 2015. (A “red card” would carry a ban on seafood exports to the EU, which could cost Taiwan’s seafood industry up to NT$7 billion, or US$244 million, in annual losses.) The investigators are also likely to evaluate the state of labor rights and safety at sea on board Taiwanese distant water vessels.
