http://www.mcss.sc/SAGREN/Sagren_v4_4_art2.htmTaiwan Whale Shark Fishery Closed ~ Official!
Breaking news is that the Government of Taiwan have approved plans to reduce the 2007 whale shark fishery quota from 45 to 30 and also convert this into 30 tagged whale sharks not dead ones and simultaneously to cancel the quota completely for future years! As the quota for 2006 is closed this means that there will be no more intentional killing of whale sharks by Taiwan!
Whale shark in Taiwan fishery. Photo Anon.
Regular readers of Sagren will be aware of the efforts of conservation organizations in Taiwan that have for many months be negotiating with the Authorities to stop the whale shark fishery there. Representatives of the Life Conservationist Association (LCA) and Co-Habitat have had long discussions with the Vice-Chairman Lee of the Council of Agriculture who agreed that the whale shark fishery should stop partly because of the somewhat doubtful economics of the industry with such a low legal tonnage and partly because the Tawianese wanted to abide by the CITES listing of the species on Appendix II, which requires scientific evidence that international trade will not have a detrimental effect on the species..
The conservationists had provided photographs of many instances of illegal trading of whale shark meat around Taipei and at a meeting with the authorities, scientists and fishermen it was agreed that with the dwindling quotas the fishery was becoming pointless. Vice-Chairman Lee proposed a plan whereby the announcement that next year's quota would be reduced to 30 would be combined with an announcement to the effect that this would be the last quota and that the fishery would close after that. This was confirmed by a statement from Mr Dah-Wen Shieh, Director-General of the Fisheries Administration, “We are confident that after 2007, people will totally aware the importance of whale shark conservation. Starting from 2008, we are going to totally stop all the whale shark fishing industry in this country. Hopefully this will be showing the great effort of our government to the nature conservation.”
This was a result in itself but after further discussions with Vice Chairman Lee, he agreed that it would be more beneficial both to Taiwan and the whale shark population that the 30 sharks of next year’s quota would be tagged, not killed, and the fisherman recompensed for their loss of income,. This proposal was then discussed with the Minister for Agriculture Su Jia Chuan who supported the initiative.
Not only does this mean and end to the fishery but it will also be supported by sweeping moves to reduce the trade in whale shark meat:
• Targeted spear fishing for whale sharks is banned
• Live whale sharks over 4m long caught in set nets will be tagged.
• Sharks smaller than 4m they have to be released
• There will be a ban on all imports of whale shark meat
• Only meat from whale sharks found dead in nets may be sold
• Such sharks will count in the quota of 30
• The compensation to fishermen for tagged sharks will be much higher than the market price
• A photo I.D. guide has been made to assist Customs officials with ID.
• A poster campaign will be launched for public education
Since the tagging proposal was discussed, the authorities have already prosecuted four establishments for illegally caught whale shark after the quota is filled, having found the meat to have been imported illegally.
Plans for the tagging programme are being made with Professor Kwang-Ming Liu and Professor Shoou-Jeng Joung at the National Taiwan Ocean University and it is hoped that there will be a lot of international collaboration and support for the project, we at MCSS have already offered our assistance in anyway that would be of use.
This amazing achievement could not have been accomplished without the tireless work of Rebecca Chen and Susie Watts but most importantly it depended on the far sightedness of the authorities in Taiwan. Letters and e-mails of congratulations would be most welcome to both:
Vice-Chairman Lee:
chyuan@mail.coa.gov.tw Minister Su Jia Chuan:
mio1129@mail.coa.gov.tw If anyone wishes to know more please contact Rebecca Chen (rebecca_ch_chen@hotmail.com).
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