TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Fisheries Agency announced on Monday that at the beginning of the year, Taiwan and Japan agreed to regulate fishing line deployment in waters near the Diaoyutai Islands.
There is an overlapping area between the Diaoyutai Islands and Yaeyama Islands where Taiwanese and Japanese fishers operate, known as the “inverted triangle,” Fisheries Agency Director-General Wang Mao-cheng (王茂城) said, per CNA.
Due to differences in fishing line deployment directions and the Kuroshio Current’s east-northeast flow, the agreement allows Taiwanese fishers to cast lines in an east-west direction between 123°E and 124°E within the inverted triangle.
Japanese fishers can deploy lines west of 123°E and east of 124°E in a north-south direction. A minimum distance of 7.4 km must be maintained between fishing vessels to prevent line entanglement and operational interference.
The new regulations will take effect in April. Fishers who continuously fail to follow the guidelines could have their fishing license permanently revoked, Wang warned.
