[Wildlife Conservation] Three Northern Islets to Become National Park

[Wildlife Conservation] Three Northern Islets to Become National Park (Chinese Version)

The Liberty Times & CTS (2010/08/30) The surrounding maritime area of the three islets off Taiwan's north coast (Pengchiayu, Mienhuayu and Huapingyu) had rich fishery production before, but because of overfishing and China fishermen's cross-border trawler fishing, the fishery resources in the area were seriously damaged; especially, trawler fishing destroyed the coral ecology severely. Marine National Park Headquarters thus planned to turn the area into a marine national park, allowing the sea area to rest and recuperate.

The three islets off the north coast, Pengchiayu, Mienhuayu and Huapingy, together are called “The Three Northern Islets,” located in a distance of forty to fifty km away from the coast. Although the islets are located already at a higher latitude, owing to the high coral coverage (between thirty to forty percent) in this area, added to which is also the passing through of an upwelling current, this area accumulates a mass of fishery resources and becomes important fishing grounds, as good for producing one quarter of the annual fish catch around Taiwan. The academics believe that the establishment of national park in this area will greatly benefit the long-term fishery development, also bringing along with the interest of marine tourism. But the fishermen do not think so.

Some fishermen agree with the delineation of the protection zone, because they think the measure may deter the cross-border fishing. They put the blame on China fishermen's trawlers, which not only capture both smaller and larger fish but also destroy the coral reefs, and think if the scope of the no-take zone is reasonable, the measure will be accepted by the fishery industry and taken as a benefit to the long-term development. On the contrary, some fishermen file an objection, questioning that the legal restriction in Taiwan is not effective at all to China fishermen. They think, the selective legal force can only result in handing over the area to the opponent for free.

Related Report:
Marine National Park Headquarters http://marine.cpami.gov.tw [doc] (December 2009)


Further Information:
The Liberty Times 2010/08/30 (Chinese)
CTS 2010/08/30 (Chinese)



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