Flower crabs, three-spot crabs and stone crabs enter port late, and the lack of statistics makes scientific research on Wanli crabs difficult

Every year after autumn arrives, fleets of crab boats from Wanli District ride the wind and waves to battle the sea in the Northwest Fishing Grounds, and food lovers wait to feast on fresh live crabs. Yet last year the Wanli crabs appeared erratically, with no trace of them still in October; only at the end of the season in late November did a glimmer of hope for the catch appear, and in December they finally arrived in a big run. "We waited all winter, and finally they came!" the fishermen said excitedly. But how long this wave of production can last? No one can predict.

Facing an overall decline in production and a "case of the missing crabs" in the early part of the season, data on Wanli crab resources has drawn much attention. Exactly how many Wanli crabs does Taiwan catch in a year? Because complete landing declarations have not been implemented, official statistics differ from actual catches by nearly 3-5 times.

With distorted statistics and a lack of scientific research, there seems to be little that can be done more proactively about the phenomenon of Wanli crabs "reporting for duty" later and later each year, other than blaming abnormal climate. Fishermen, long accustomed to living at the mercy of the weather, remain optimistic by nature, but they also express helplessness, always saying: "However heaven comes, that is how we respond; it has always been like this at sea."

"Crabs don't remember what month it is; they only look at whether the water is cold enough."

"Wanli crabs" include three major categories of sea crab: flower crab, three-spot crab and stone crab. About 80 percent of the sea crabs caught in Taiwan's coastal waters come from Wanli District in New Taipei City, which has four fishing ports under its jurisdiction: Yeliu, Dongao, Guihou and Wanli. 70 crab boats gather in the nearby "Northwest Fishing Grounds" (the waters off Cape Fugui in New Taipei City), where the Oyashio Current and the Kuroshio Current converge; it is a sandy seabed nearly 100 meters deep, a uniquely favorable environment teeming with all kinds of sea crabs.

To distinguish it from imported crabs and farmed crabs, in ROC year 101 the New Taipei City government branded Wanli crabs, emphasizing a "freshest" local seafood image. "When autumn comes, the crabs get fat!" Every year from September to November is the peak crabbing season, with mid-October the peak of the season. The New Taipei City government holds Wanli crab promotional events, with live crabs delivered directly to the Yeliu, Fuji and Guihou markets, and restaurants packed with crowds buying crabs. Yet last year (ROC year 108), just as the season began, the Wanli crab catch was abnormally low, and many consumers found crab prices had doubled. Wu Liang-cheng, chairman of the Chinese Fisheries Fishing Boat Association, also admitted that the first batch of production only surfaced in late November, and last year's Wanli Crab Tourism Festival was very hard to put on.

"Crabs don't remember what month it is; they only look at whether the water is cold enough." Wu Liang-cheng pointed out that the climate has stayed hot in recent years, and it may be warming seawater that has changed the ecology. In past years crabs could be caught by August; the year before last, crab groups did not appear until after September; last year was even worse, with people still wearing short sleeves in October, so crab boats could only hope the weather would cool down quickly, otherwise the crabs might simply not come.

The biggest fear is crabs that "arrive late and finish early"; once the northeast monsoon comes, it is hard to go to sea

At Wanli, the "Lian family crew," which owns nine crab boats and has been in the crabbing industry for more than 60 years, also spoke through Zhu Guan-yu, the family's third-generation successor. He said that usually the colder the temperature, the more crabs there are. Before last November, the results of the various fishing boats were generally poor; a catch of 1-2 tonnes per trip was considered a high mark, and in September a single trip out to sea yielded only 300-400 tai jin. "Several crab traps had only one crab each, and flower crabs were especially few, with the ratio to three-spot crabs about 1:10."

"What we fear most is 'arriving late and finishing early,' so the real season may be only the single month of December." After finally hoping for a bit of coolness in northern Taiwan after mid-November, several waves of cold air followed, but unfortunately the strong northeast monsoon made going to sea difficult. "The crab season has finally come, yet we cannot set out; how painful!" said Yan Fu-qing, secretary-general of the Chinese Fisheries Fishing Boat Association, wryly.

Wanli crabs report in December; fishermen sigh: they have finally come!

Fortunately, the Wanli crabs that had gone elsewhere to "escape the heat" returned to the Northwest Fishing Grounds one after another at the end of last year. As the northeast monsoon continued to rage, the Wanli crabs followed the cool seawater southward. Wu Liang-cheng said joyfully that after mid-December the Wanli crabs finally entered a big run. "We waited all winter, and finally they came!" Coupled with good weather and calm sea conditions, boat owners went out to sea again almost as soon as they returned to port to unload, and local shops also extended their promotional events to celebrate the bumper Wanli crab harvest.

The Wanli crab catch at the end of the year was clearly larger than the previous month, and as production rose, prices also stabilized. The Fisheries and Fishing Port Affairs Management Office of New Taipei City (referred to as the "New Taipei Fisheries Office") said that according to market prices at the Guihou Fishermen's Market, before December last year the average market price of flower crab was 552 yuan per tai jin, three-spot crab 322 yuan, and stone crab 275 yuan; after production surged at the end of the month, Wanli crab prices also returned to past in-season levels: flower crab averaged 452 yuan per tai jin, three-spot crab 335 yuan, and stone crab 275 yuan, a previous increase of about 10 percent.

Director Qiu of the Fisheries Office pointed out that price changes adjust with production and are entirely determined by market supply and demand. Although the catch in September and October last year was not as large as in the same period in previous years, prices did not fluctuate much.

Declared Wanli crab catch 300-400 tonnes; fishermen say at least 1,200 tonnes

It is an indisputable fact that abnormal climate, overfishing and ocean pollution have reduced overall catches. Compared with other species, crustaceans lay large numbers of eggs and grow quickly, so their resource recovery capacity is relatively good. Yet many fishermen still report that, compared with five years ago, when a casual haul could bring in 3 tonnes (calculated on the basis of 10 crab traps on one boat), production is now about 40 percent lower. Wu Liang-cheng, who has 30 years of crabbing experience, said even more bluntly that ten years ago it was not surprising for a single trip out to sea to catch 50,000 tonnes.

Facing an overall decline in production and a "case of the missing crabs" in the early part of the season, data on Wanli crab resources has drawn much attention. Exactly how many Wanli crabs does Taiwan catch in a year? According to landing declaration statistics obtained by the New Taipei Fisheries Office, the Wanli crab catch was 454 tonnes in ROC year 105, 750 tonnes in ROC year 106, 375 metric tonnes in ROC year 107, and 324 metric tonnes last year (through October), with the average figure between 300 and 400 tonnes. Yet this figure differs greatly from the actual situation. Xu Shun-fa, general secretary of the Wanli District Fishermen's Association, pointed out that the total catch the year before last was about 1,500 tonnes, and last year was at least 1,100 tonnes.

Wu Liang-cheng also confirmed, "A figure of 300-plus tonnes is impossible; the entire Wanli crab industry needs at least 1,200 tonnes (caught) to be sustained."

Without real statistical data, there is no basis for supplementary fishing and management policy is difficult

Why is there such a large gap? It is understood that after local fishermen catch crabs and return to port, they sell the goods wholesale to dealers, and then declare the catch online based on the delivery figures. There is no supervisory unit at the port, and most fishermen fill it in voluntarily, so it naturally lacks enforcement. Wu Liang-cheng also believes it is related to the complicated declaration procedure, as many fishermen "get a headache just seeing the declaration form"; and Xu Shun-fa further said that some fishermen