Taiwan Tuna Association (the TTA) had been consulting with the Overseas Fisheries Development Council of Republic of China (the OFDC) on fishery improvement project since early 2020. Following the consultations, a signing ceremony was held on 16 September 2020 to officially collaborate with the OFDC to jointly promote the Pacific Albacore Longline Fishery Improvement Project (Pacific Albacore FIP). The participants to the ceremony included the Government, the academia, trading agents, and those intending to join this fishery improvement project.

   

●Currently the relevant personnel/ authority participating in Pacific Albacore FIP include:

●Fisheries Agency, Ministry of Agriculture (Government)
●Associate Professor Li-Juan Liu Huang of National Chung Cheng University and her team (Academia)
●Overseas Fisheries Development Council of Republic of China (Non-profit Organization)
●Taiwan Tuna Association (Fishing Vessel Owner Association)
●FCF CO., Ltd. (Trading agent)
●29 longline fishing vessels (Producer)

●The objectives of the fishery improvement project

According to the result of the Needs Assessment which report is completed by using the rapid environmantal assessment tool developed by Ocean Ooutcomes, the corresponding Work Plan are drafted and adopted with the objectves as follows:

●Promote the development and implementation of a harvest strategy and control rules for the fishery;
●Strengthen the data collection of endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) species to understand their status;
●Increase the coverage of observer to collect information regarding the catch, the discarded and the interaction with ETP species;
●Develop labor rights improvement strategy to strengthen the protection of labor rights.

●Current Progress

●The 1st skipper training on best practices for safe handling and release ETP species was conducted at the TTA offices on October 24, 2023, in Kaohsiung.
   
●To mitigate the impact of bycatch, the working group revised the work plan in early 2024 and adopted a bycatch mitigation policy for ETP species in March, demonstrating a commitment to conserving other species.
●Progress made in 2020 to 2022