FISHERIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE,MOA,TAIWAN

Marine plastic particles along with Japan’s plan to release Fukushima’s tritium-containing waste water into the ocean have drawn general public’s attention to the safety of seafoods. To strictly guard the environment and ecology of fishing ground in the coastal waters around Taiwan, the fishery research vessel “Fishery Researcher No.1” sailed to the waters around Taiwan and conducted important fishing ground reserach from April 7 to 30, 2021, with research teams from the Fisheries Research Institute, National Taiwan University, and National Chung Hsing University. Projects of this voyage include the project of monitoring that was initiated by the Fisheries Research Institute since 2003, the newly added research on ocean waste (microplastics) and benthic ecology, with the introduction of edge-cutting technologies inclduing environmental DNA (eDNA), artificial intelligence. This research trip also aims at assisting the Atomic Energy Council in collecting sea water samples from key monitoring stations for the research of radiation background value.

The Fisheries Research Institute stated that the marine fishery environment needs to be continuously monitored by research vessel on a long-term basis in order to understand the impact of changes in the marine environment on fishery resources. Further, The Fisheries Research Institute has been implementing the “Environmental monitoring of fishing grounds in the coastal and offshore waters around Taiwan” since 2003. The environmental information of the fishing grounds is collected by the fishery research vessel with its various scientific instruments when the weather permits—including monitoring items such as water temperature, salinity, nutrients, chlorophyll, zooplankton, larvae, and juveniles. The goal is to ensure the sustainable use of fishery resources in the “New Agriculture Innovation Promotion Program”, and align it with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 14 (conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources) and 17 (revitalize the global partnership). In addition to sharing research resources with academic institutions, it also promotes sustainable development of Taiwan.

The Fisheries Research Institute further explained that the research teams of National Taiwan University and others are executing the “Taiwan Marine Ecological Environmental Protection Program” of Ocean Conservation Administration, with the goal of establishing marine ecological data as the best scientific basis for marine conservation and utilization. Furthermore, the Fisheries Research Institute and academic institutions have jointly formed research teams to integrate research results across the fields of fishery resources, marine conservation, and academic applications. Moreover, the Institute has implemented the “Medium and Long-term Plan for Construction of Sustainable Fishery Resources and Development of Basic Energy in Response to Climate Change” since 2019. It is estimated that the construction of three new fishery research vessels will be completed by 2024, and more modern vessels and scientific research instruments will be put into monitoring tasks by then.

The Fisheries Research Institute emphasizes that to promote fishery resource sustainability, it will continue to invest in field research and monitoring to ensure the safety of aquatic products and integrate various research capabilities in Taiwan to continue safeguarding the fishing grounds in the waters surrounding Taiwan, thereby promoting the sustainable use of fisheries.