In February 2017, the Fisheries Agency of the Council of Agriculture established a 24-hour Fisheries Monitoring Center, with the formation of an integrated fisheries information system, integrating basic fishing vessel information, vessel positions, catch data, and others, for automatic cross-checking, and automatically sending alerts in case of abnormal situations. This has greatly improved the efficiency of fisheries monitoring, as well as effective implementation of fisheries management.

　　The Council of Agriculture mentioned that in order to carry out close monitoring of our fishing vessels operating in the world’s oceans, the Fisheries Agency of COA established a 24-hour Fisheries Monitoring Center, providing 24/7 round-the-clock monitoring and control of the activities of our about 1,200 distant water fishing vessels, using the foundation of the multi-functional vessel monitoring system (VMS) already in place for some time. It incorporates the system of Fisheries Management System, Catch Record System, and Deep Sea Fisheries Management System, for automatic system cross-checking with the function of automatic alert, thereby improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our fisheries management.

　　The Council of Agriculture stated that the functions of the monitoring center are mainly in 3 directions, including: 1. Conducting routine monitoring of fishing vessels, and monitoring of specific reported incidents; 2. Responding to abnormal operations of distant water fishing vessels, and communications of boarding inspection; and 3. Communications and responses on emergent incidents of fishing vessels. Not only can it prevent our distant water fishing vessels from involving in IUU fishing activities, but can also keep close attention to the activities of our fishing vessels operating in areas of high risks, reminding captains matters need attention while fishing in such areas, raising the awareness of captains to pay special attention on the movements of the surrounding vessels, to reduce the chance of harassment by foreign vessels. In addition, in case of such emergent incidents as collision of fishing vessels, and injury of crewmembers, real-time communications can be triggered, to ensure fishermen’s safety and reduce the loss of property.

　　Finally the Council of Agriculture expressed that joint combating and deterrence of IUU fishing is a concerted goal the international community has been working toward, and in line with such international trend, we have taken a number of actions on enhancing fisheries management, and the establishment of the 24-hour fisheries monitoring center is one of the important actions. The monitoring center will operate round-the-clock, allowing monitoring personnel to get hold of the activities of fishing vessels in real-time basis, timely reminding vessels regulations to comply with, to avoid the possibility of violation. This has brought great efficacy on the improvement of surveillance, prevention of illegal fishing, sound law enforcement, conservation of resources, as well as sustainable fisheries.

Contact person: Hong-Yen Huang, Deputy Director-General, Fisheries Agency
Telephone: 02-23835899
Mobile phone: 0920-089165
E-mail: hangyen@ms1.fa.gov.tw