Abstract
The depletion of tuna stocks in the waters of Southeast Asia has presented a substantial challenge to the fishing communities of post Second World War Taiwan. The purpose of this chapter is to the link the impact of quantitative changes in offshore tuna resources to the growth and decline of Taiwan’s fishing industry, and to trace the development of longline fishing techniques and their long-term impact on Taiwan’s offshore tuna fisheries. The chapter focusses on the main centres of the offshore fishing industry in Taihoku (Taipei) State and Takao (Kaohsiung) State. It begins with the introduction of tuna fishing to Taihoku State in the early 1910s, and shows how the centre of tuna fishing gradually shifted to Takao State in the mid-1930s, demonstrating how the exploitation of tuna resources in Southeast Asian waters reshaped the fishing communities of pre WWII Taiwan. The chapter also analyses the interactions between the changes in tuna abundance, the development of onboard fishing facilities and the growth and decline of the tuna longlining industry in post-WWII Taiwan.
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Notes
- 1.
Taiwan Yuyeshi Ziliao Suanbian was edited by the Academia Sinica in post-WWII Taiwan; Taiwan Suisan Tokei were fisheries yearbooks published by the colonial authorities.
- 2.
As a matter of fact, the onset of the business relationships between the Japanese fish traders and Taiwanese distant water fishing companies had been established not long after the end of WWII, and this relationship was strengthened after overseas supply bases were developed by Taiwan’s fishing companies.
- 3.
During the 1940s and 1950s, longlines that were used in the waters of Southeast Asia were dyed with mineral pitch.
- 4.
In the 1960s, the Jhongguo Fishing Company (JFC), a state-run fishing company, had fished in the South Indian Ocean. However, by the JFC’s pioneering fishing activities did not encouraged the Taiwanese tuna longliners to harvest tuna in the Indian Ocean.
- 5.
In 1963, another American company, Star Kist Food Inc., also set up a canning factory in Samoa.
- 6.
The year that Taiwanese civilian longliners first went to Samoa was 1964. The longliners which joined this expedition numbered as many as 11. This point is in accord with information contained in Taiwan ni okeru Maguro Gyogyō no Genkyō [The Present Situation of Taiwan’s Tuna Longline Fishing, 1981].
- 7.
Before 1964, Taiwan’s fisheries’ circles knew little or nothing about the fishing grounds in the South Pacific Ocean. Taiwanese fishing expeditions were mainly conducted in the East Indian Oceans by a state-run fishing company, the Jhongguo Fishing Company (JFC), in 1955 and the Atlantic Ocean in 1960. However, the JFC’s efforts did not contribute towards the establishment of the Taiwanese global-scale fisheries due to its constant mismanagement.
- 8.
The first fishing company to use overseas supply bases and fish in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans was the China Fishing Company (CFC). However, the CFC’s efforts were not proven successful.
- 9.
The Taiwanese fishing grounds continuously expanded in Southeast Asia, even while the distant water fishing vessels of Taiwan were operating all over the world since the 1960s.
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Chen, TY. (2014). Evolution and Development of the Taiwanese Offshore Tuna Fishery. In: Christensen, J., Tull, M. (eds) Historical Perspectives of Fisheries Exploitation in the Indo-Pacific. MARE Publication Series, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8727-7_7
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