Taiwanese fishermen yesterday said they support the government in sending patrol ships to international waters near a Japanese-controlled atoll in the Western Pacific to protect Taiwanese fishing boats operating there.
Yes, [the government] should be this tough. This is what we call protecting fishermen, said Tsai Tien-y, a fishing boat owner and former chief of Pingtung County’s Liouciou Township.
Tsai criticized Japan’s detention of the Liouciou-registered fishing boat Tung Sheng Chi No. 16 in waters close to the Okinotori atoll on Monday last week.
Tsai said the case has not just caused financial losses, but that the boat’s captain also had to undergo a strip search.
The captain’s human rights have been violated, he said.
All the fishermen in Liouciou agree that while demanding the deposit’s return, the government should also demand that Japan compensate for the loss of fishing gear and the fish the Tung Sheng Chi No. 16 was unable to catch because of the seizure, Tsai said.
Also, the government should ask Japan to apologize for the insult the captain suffered, he added.
No Taiwanese fishing boats had been seized by Japan in waters near the atoll until last week.
That area has been regarded as the high seas, Tsai said, describing the detention as the result of Japan’s unilateral expansion of its maritime territory.
The government’s action to protect fisheries meets the calls for the protection of fishermen, he said.
Tsai’s remarks were echoed by Liouciou Fishermen’s Association chief executive Tsai Pao-hsing.
He said that from March to July each year, more than 200 Taiwanese boats fish for several kinds of fish, including mahi mahi and swordfish, in waters near the Okinotori atoll.
They had always operated safely in that area until two years ago, when Japanese military boats began to chase them away.
No seizures had happened until last week’s incident, he said.
Meanwhile, in Pingtung County’s Donggang Township, Donggang District Fishermen’s Association chief executive Lin Han-chou said he supported the government’s protection mission near the Okinotori atoll.
Yilan County fishermen were also angry with Japan’s unilateral move to expand its economic economic zone.
Lin Yueh-ying, a former chief executive of the Suao District Fishermen’s Association, said that over the past 10 years, Japanese patrol boats have often thrown plastic bottles containing a chart of Okinotori into Taiwanese fishing boats operating in waters nears the atoll to declare Japan’s sovereignty over the area.
On the chart, the Okinotori atoll is called Okinotori Island, Lin said, adding that whenever she receives such a chart, she changes the word island to atoll.
No fishermen in Suao recognize Japan’s declaration of an exclusive economic zone around the atoll, she said.
Two patrol ships set off yesterday to waters near the atoll on a mission to protect Taiwanese fishermen operating in the area under a directive issued by President Ma Ying-jeou that the protection of fishermen’s rights and benefits must be carried out with full strength.
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