Referring to a report by Greenpeace on overfishing in the Pacific, Sha Chih-yi, director of the Fisheries Administration, said his office would investigate whether the Taiwanese boats monitored by the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza between August 23 and Oct. 19 had been illegally fishing in the Pacific.

If the reported illegal transshipment activities among the Taiwanese fishing vessels are found to be true, they would face government penalties, he added.

Representatives of the Greenpeace and the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan held a press conference in Taipei Saturday, at which they announced the findings by Greenpeace Esperanza during the eight weeks of monitoring.

The two organizations called on the Taiwan government to assist the conservation groups in their efforts to ensure sustainable fisheries and to protect the marine ecosystem of the Pacific.

Seven Taiwanese vessels and Panama flagged boats that have links to Taiwanese companies were reported to have engaged in illegal transshipments or to have fished in tuna reserves, undermining conservation efforts and threatening the Pacific tuna stocks.

Greeenpeace representative Sari Tolvanen displayed several photos of a Taiwanese longliner transferring its catch to a second Taiwanese longliner on the high seas close to the Federated States of Micronesia.

The transshipment violated the terms of the fishing license issued to one of the vessels by Micronesia, while the second vessel had no fishing licenses from any Pacific Island country, she said.

The annual fish catch in the Western and Central Pacific region totals 2.5 million metric tons, while the yield of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities is estimated at around 850,000 metric tons a year, according to Tolvanen.

Fishery production value in the region amounts to US$2 billion a year, but the island countries that issue fishing licenses earn no more than 6 percent of the profits, she added.

According to Greenpeace, the Western and Central Pacific ocean is now the source of more than half of the world's tuna catch. Having fished tuna stocks in other oceans to the point of serious decline or even collapse, countries are increasingly sending their fishing fleets to the Pacific to exploit the region's stocks, Greenpeace said.

Overfishing will have an immeasurable impact on Pacific island countries, which rely upon tuna as an essential source of food, livelihood and revenue, Greenpeace reported.

(By Yang Shu-ming and Lillian Lin)