Taiwan is drafting a public statement to slam Greenpeace activists for boarding a fishing boat in the South Pacific earlier this week to check for an illegal shark fin harvest, a fisheries official said yesterday.
The Fisheries Agency will send a protest letter to the multilateral Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and to Greenpeace, the international environmental group that the government says inappropriately forced its way onto a Taiwan-registered boat on Monday to inspect the shark catch.
Activists on the Greenpeace ship Esperanza obtained the Taiwanese crew��s permission to board the ship in waters east of the Solomon Islands, Greenpeace oceans campaigner Jason Collins said.
After boarding the fishing vessel, they found about 110kg of shark fins, he said.
The amount of separated shark fins probably exceeded the legal weight limit, he said.
Although shark catches are legal, the 25-country fishing commission restricts the weight of severed fins per boat to ensure that live sharks are not being thrown back into the ocean.
��Then they just sink to the bottom and die,�� Collins said.
In response, Fisheries Agency deputy director-general James Sha (�F�Ӥ@) said the agency would send a letter of protest to Greenpeace for its actions against the Taiwanese fishing boat.
��The boat was sailing on the high seas and according to international law, it��s the country where the boat is registered that has jurisdiction over it when it��s sailing on the high seas,�� Sha told the Taipei Times by telephone.
��Greenpeace is not in any position to intervene, especially when it��s a non-governmental organization, not a state law enforcement body,�� he said.
He said the fishing boat did not violate any Taiwanese law.
In response to Collins�� statement that activists on the Greenpeace ship Esperanza had obtained permission from the fishing vessel��s crew prior to boarding to check the catch, Sha said that ��the captain gave the permission only because he felt the crew��s safety was threatened [by the activists].��
��We will protest to Greenpeace directly and to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission,�� Sha said.
Taiwan is a member of the international commission ��and we want to know why our fishing boat��s safety wasn��t guaranteed,�� he said.
Shark fin soup is considered a delicacy in Taiwan and in Chinese restaurants in other countries.
More than 100 shark species are being ��commercially exploited,�� casting doubt on the long-term survival of some of them, the Switzerland-based Shark Foundation has said.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS