Greenpeace investigation has exposed illegal shark finning, labour and human rights abuses. (Photo: Greenpeace)

Illegal fishing and slave labour continue in Tawainese tuna fleet, states Greenpeace

TAIWAN
Friday, April 15, 2016, 01:10 (GMT + 9)

A year-long Greenpeace East Asia investigation into Taiwan’s distant water tuna fisheries has revealed Taiwan’s failure to adequately address illegal shark finning as well as labour and human rights abuses at sea.

The NGO released these findings just when a yellow card warning from the European Commission, issued in October 2015, is about to expire. The EC gave the Asian country six months to clean up its fisheries or face economic sanction by the EU.

“These investigations paint a comprehensive picture of an industry in crisis,” claimed Yen Ning, Ocean Campaigner at Greenpeace East Asia.

“Despite talking the talk, Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency appears incapable of monitoring the out-of-control tuna industry. Whether through lack of capacity or otherwise, our investigations reveal devastating impacts on marine life and people’s lives,” the environmentalist added.

The NGO’s report also reveals the abusive treatment of foreign crew performed through delayed and withheld payments, along with horrendous working conditions, exploitation by recruiting agents, verbal and serious physical abuse, and death at sea.

Greenpeace states that these human rights abuses seem to go hand-in-hand with environmental abuses. Fins are not allowed to be separated from shark carcasses under legislation Taiwan passed in 2012, but in a single three-month investigation in just one port in Taiwan, Greenpeace East Asia uncovered 16 illegal cases of shark finning.

In contrast, an inquiry to Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency showed the same number of cases was recorded over the last 12 months, across the whole of Taiwan.

The NGO claims that Taiwan owns the most tuna longline vessels worldwide and that the country’s tuna take puts it in the top six Pacific fishing entities.

“Taiwanese companies, like seafood giant Fong Chun Formosa Fishery Company, Ltd. (FCF), exports directly to markets and supply some of the world’s largest seafood companies, including Thailand’s troubled Thai Union Group. Large amounts of Taiwanese caught tuna are exported to Thailand for processing, where serious labour and human rights violations have been recently exposed. This not only risks further contamination of Taiwanese products, but can also contaminate exports from Thailand,” the report reads.

Greenpeace stressed that even when Taiwan's Government passed a draft bill and revisions to raise the maximum fine for illegal fishing activities in a bid to bring its policies in line with international law, they have evidence that Taiwanese companies were still breaking the rules, "confident that negligible penalties will rarely be imposed".

“This isn’t just about trade, it’s about Taiwan’s responsibility to treat workers fairly and to contribute to the ongoing sustainability of our oceans,” Ning pointed out.

The environment organization warned that Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency’s proposal of a new distant waters fisheries act will be meaningless without enforcement.

"If there is not enough resources put in to the implementation and action plan, the Act or the regulation will become meaningless, just like in the case we discovered," the campaigner concluded.

Related article:

- EC issues yellow cards to Taiwan and Comoros over illegal fishing

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