E - Iccat

ICCAT REPORT 2002-2003 (II)
Without additional catch limit, they will be competing with the existing legitimate licensed vessels . It would
mean punishment of the existing legitimate licensed vessels. For your information, these vessels have
contributed a substantive fund amounting to some US$2 million to support the scrapping program of Japan. We
believe it was not the intention of the international community to penalize those who played the game in a
respectful way, nor was it the intention of the international community to desert a nation who has made its best
effort to cooperate in combating the notorious IUU fishing activities. The resolution adopted by ICCAT that
openly praised and encouraged the joint program was read as a signal of support from ICCAT, at least to ensure
the continued operation of the vessels under the re-registered program.
In fact in our report to the Commission on the joint program of Japan and Chinese Taipei to eliminate IUU largescale
tuna longline vessels (see ICCAT Report 2000-2001 (II), pp. 373), we indicated that owners of some FOC
vessels that operated in the Atlantic Ocean were doubtful about the re-registration program wondering whether
they would be granted any catch allocation after the re-registration, and since they have been fishing all the time
in the Atlantic Ocean, and they would rather prefer not to join the program and continue fishing without any
restriction, if they would eventually be barred from operating in the Atlantic region after the re-registration. For
this reason, from the time these FOC vessels started the re-registration process, the fisheries authority undertook
close monitoring over their catches. When fully implemented, the re-registration program would enable
reduction of FOC/IUU fishing activities, including those in the Atlantic Ocean, bringing the FOC vessels to
proper control under our governance, and thus resulting effective management of resource utilization in the
Atlantic. As such, there was an understanding that those IUU/FOC vessels will still be operating in the
convention area after their re -registration, with additional allocation.
Someone may argue the Commission will be benefiting the ex-IUU/FOC vessels, but we must reconsider the
weight of the benefit of the two sides and see which one receives higher merit, whether it is the management of
fleet under proper control by giving them some allowable catch or it is the thinking of a reputable regional
fisheries management organization like ICCAT to take a harsh and irresponsible action of squeezing them so that
they are forced to leave the Atlantic and have the matter passed to another RFMO.
We are therefore requesting the Commission to provide an additional catch limited of 2,000 t of bigeye and a
reasonable amount of by-catch of southern swordfish. We will certainly continue working closely with all
ICCAT members as well as members of other RFMO in the world in combating IUU fishing activities.
Supplemental Note on Request of Additional Bigeye Catch Limit
To eliminate IUU fishing activities by large-scale tuna longliners in the Atlantic Ocean and other areas, under a
joint action plan with Japan, Chinese Taipei has been doing its best efforts in establishing avenues to permit
those LSTLVs newly built in its shipyards to seek re-registration under its registry. In the course of reregistration,
ICCAT adopted a Resolution entitled the Supplemental Resolution on the Bigeye Statistical
Document Program [Ref. 01-23], in which the importing countries agree to accept a document validated by
Japan or Chinese Taipei on bigeye tuna caught by the vessels participating in the scrapping program by Japan
and those participating in the re-registration program that those vessels shall operate in compliance with the
Commission’s conservation and management measures. There should be an understanding that the issuing of
bigeye statistical documents under this Resolution shall not count against the catch limit to Chinese Taipei.
With the effective of the implementation of the Bigeye Statistical Document as from July 2002, Chinese Taipei
began issuing BETSDs for the vessels seeking re-registration. These vessels were required to install satellite
vessel monitoring system, apply same catch limit per vessel of 183 t as licensed vessels though it was not a
requirement under the said resolution. They were required to submit catch logbooks.
In order to distinguish between these group of vessels and the legitimate licensed vessels, in view of the catch
limitation on bigeye tuna enforced to the legitimate licensed vessels, the catch of these vessels was listed in a
separate column in the Task I figures provided to ICCAT in the national report.
In 2002 the landings of bigeye by the legitimate licensed vessels were 16,503 t and those by the vessels seeking
re-registration were 1,980 t. These figures are consistent with the figures as indicated in Japanese Import of
Frozen Atlantic Bigeye fromChinese Taipei. The Commission may note that such a phenomena will continue in
2003 as the process of re-registration will have to take some time, and by the end of 2003 all these vessels will
have completed their re-registration and that is why the total landings of bigeye tuna by Chinese Taipei will
increase by around 2,000 t. For this reason, Chinese Taipei is requesting the Commission to consider an
additional quota of 2,000 t.
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