Source: Taiwan News
Activist spokeswoman Kao Yu-fen said the government’s Fisheries Agency officially paid lip service to the idea of protecting the oceans’ aquatic life against depletion of maritime resources, but on the other hand allowed the construction of fishing trawlers which caused even more damage than previous models.
About ten crew members from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza entered the shipbuilding yard early Friday and hung a 15-meter-high banner with the English words “Overfishing Starts Here†from a huge crane.
The Kaohsiung Harbor Police forced the ship to drop anchor at another dock and questioned the group of activists, which included four citizens of the United States and one from Hong Kong, reports said.
“The Taiwanese government is cheating international agreements and Greenpeace is taking peaceful action today to demand it adhere to scientific advice and help end overfishing,†Kao was quoted as saying on the local Greenpeace web site.
“In the end, it is the small-scale fishing communities and the people of Taiwan that will suffer most from empty oceans and collapsed fish populations,†she said.
The Esperanza’s appearance in Kaohsiung was part of a tour of East Asia designed to raise awareness of the risks of overfishing the oceans.