Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/10/26
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Lilian Wu
Taipei, Oct. 26 (CNA) Taiwan has to improve its fishing practices and eliminate illegal
Greenpeace activists prepare to board illegal fishing vessel Shuen De Ching No 888. The Rainbow Warrior travels in the Pacific to expose out of control tuna fisheries. Tuna fishing has been linked to shark finning, overfishing and human rights abuses.
behavior or face trade sanctions from the European Union, environmental group Greenpeace warned Monday.
Greenpeace reported in early September that a Taiwanese fishing vessel, the Shuen De Ching (順得慶) No. 888, was illegally harvesting shark fins and throwing the bodies of the sharks into the sea near Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific.
The European Commission issued a yellow card to Taiwan on Oct. 1, warning it risked being identified as an uncooperative country in the fight against “illegal, unreported and unregulated” (IUU) fishing.
Greenpeace said Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency sent officials to check on the Shuen De Ching after the ship’s return to Taiwan and found that it had falsely recorded its fish catch, cut fins off sharks and thrown their bodies into the sea, and violated the ban on fishing for black sharks. [FULL STORY]
