The Biggest Crisis in Fisheries History: Fisheries Agency Plans to Open a Quarter of Fish Ponds for Solar Power, Drawing Sharp Criticism
Solar power grabbing agricultural resources has been an unending controversy. Besides farmland being improperly developed, aquaculture fisheries are facing the biggest land grab in Taiwan's history! According to exclusive information obtained by "Upstream and Downstream", the Fisheries Agency is expected to release 10,000 hectares of fish ponds for "fishery-solar symbiosis", accounting for as much as 1/4 of the nation's total aquaculture fishery area! At present, six fishery-solar symbiosis project sites have already passed review, with a combined area approaching 700 hectares. (For the Fisheries Agency's response, click here)
According to the review regulations for fishery-solar symbiosis, aquaculture fish ponds with solar power facilities installed must maintain at least 70% of their original output. The Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute conducted aquaculture experiments under solar panels last year (2019). The complete data originally required two years to obtain, but the Fisheries Agency "advance deployed" and is expected to release the fish ponds ahead of schedule. Aquaculture fishermen sharply criticize the government for rushing things. Lin Chin-lang, chairman of the Yunlin County Shallow Sea Aquaculture Association, said: "Fishermen are already suffocating under environmental pollution and extreme climate, and now they also have to face unfair land competition from solar power, reduced to a big pie fought over by operators and politicians."
Tsai Hui-hsun, director of the Earth Citizens Foundation and also a review committee member for the Fisheries Agency's fishery-solar symbiosis, pointed out that fishery-solar symbiosis not only reduces the land fishermen can use for aquaculture, but also reduces ecological habitat space. The Fisheries Agency should promptly carry out environmental and social audits for fishery-solar symbiosis project sites, and before that, all project site reviews should be suspended.
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