Wind farms are seizing fishing grounds, and Dade Company actually sent people with knives to threaten! Fishermen of Taizi Village roar: "With the Sixth Naphtha Cracker to the north plus the cables, where will we be able to fish in the future?"
Conflicts between offshore wind farms and fishing grounds continue unabated. Recently, the German company Dade carried out wind farm drilling (HDD) operations off the coast of Sihu, Yunlin. Fishermen along the Yunlin coast say the company gave no prior notice, and that the construction process damaged fishing gear and the ecology of the fishing grounds. The two sides have clashed at sea on four separate occasions, and the fishermen have reported the matter to the company and local government many times. Yet while Dade negotiates with the fishermen, it also smears and divides them. To express their determination to defend their traditional fishing grounds, the fishermen went north to the Legislative Yuan today (the 13th) to hold a joint press conference with environmental groups, demanding that the wind turbines withdraw from the fishing grounds.
The fishermen who went north today include Li Pingshun, chairman of the Yunlin County Nearshore Fishing Boat Association; Lin Quanfa, vice chairman of the Kouhu Township Joint Self-Rescue Association in Yunlin County; Huang Zhengzhen, a fisherman from Taizi Village in Kouhu Township; and young fisherman Xu Qinyuan. They displayed pomfret and threadfin caught at four o'clock this morning and put forward five demands: that the wind farm withdraw from the fishing grounds; that the company must not install wind turbines within 3 nautical miles offshore or within 30 m of water depth; and that it must not use large machinery to damage the seabed.
"If the wind farm really gets built, the fish market will definitely be affected this winter!"
The German company Dade plans to build 80 large offshore wind turbines off the coast of Yunlin County, but the designated wind farm heavily overlaps with the local fishermen's traditional fishing grounds, and no prior notice was given. Li Pingshun, chairman of the Yunlin County Nearshore Fishing Boat Association, said the company's so-called communication and coordination with fishermen was limited to the heads of the fishermen's association and a few representatives, while fishermen from the main sea areas had no way to take part in the environmental impact assessment process, and not even local fishermen attended the pre-construction briefings.
"The first time I saw the company's construction, they told me they were just surveying the seabed topography, but in fact they were destroying the seabed," Li Pingshun said angrily. "People all say fishermen overfish, but we use neither bottom trawls nor electric fishing." Although most Yunlin fishermen are aquaculture operators, the mullet and pomfret caught by nearshore fishing boats are not to be underestimated. "If the wind farm really gets built, the fish market will definitely be affected this winter!"
When Taizi Village fishermen went to the county government to negotiate with Dade, they encountered unidentified individuals secretly carrying knives
"The company asked us fishermen to negotiate at the county government, but unidentified people actually mingled in, and they were carrying knives." Lin Quanfa, vice chairman of the Kouhu Township Joint Self-Rescue Association in Yunlin County, is also a fisherman from Taizi Village. Lin Quanfa said Taizi Village has more than 300 households and nearly 100 fishing boats. The fishermen are straightforward and simple by nature and hoped to negotiate with the company in a fair, just and open manner. Three rounds of negotiations have been held so far, but recalling the third round still makes him shudder.
Lin Quanfa recalled that all three rounds of negotiation took place at the county government, and Dade demanded that fishermen not livestream and that information not be leaked. When they arrived at the third negotiation, they found four unidentified individuals had joined the scene. "They were even sitting on our fishermen's side, but everyone in the fishing village knows each other, and no one had ever seen them." The fishermen later sensed something was wrong and called the police in time. A search revealed that these four unidentified individuals not only had criminal records, but folding knives were also found on them.
Lin Quanfa said that upon questioning, the four individuals stated they were from a contractor company commissioned by Dade to handle matters related to the fishermen's negotiations, and Dade later terminated its contract with the contractor under public pressure. "Treating us like this, how are we supposed to believe the wind turbine company will treat fishermen well?"
Taizi Village fishermen: With the Sixth Naphtha Cracker to the north and cables too, once the wind farm is built, where can we still fish?
The other two Taizi Village fishermen present, Huang Zhengzhen and Xu Qinyuan, also said that most local fishermen have made their living from the sea for generations. The establishment of the Sixth Naphtha Cracker industrial zone in the past already made it impossible to fish in the northern waters, and the wind farm will take away the little fishing area that remains. "Where can we still fish? Who can tell me?"
Some people believe fishermen overfish and cause a shortage of marine resources. Huang Zhengzhen said fishermen depend on the sea for their livelihood, and these fishing grounds have been passed down through generations of ancestors. Fishermen also leave fish for the next generation when they fish, but now with the Sixth Naphtha Cracker to the north and cables as well, the nearshore fishing grounds of Yunlin have little left. "Since Dade came, our catch has dropped enormously. What are we fishermen supposed to do?"
Young fisherman: We don't want short-term subsidies or compensation, please give the fishing grounds back to us
Xu Qinyuan, in his twenties, graduated from the Department of Aquaculture at National Taiwan Ocean University. Right after graduating, he paid out of his own pocket to build a boat, putting in the savings he had accumulated from part-time work from high school through university. "I went out to sea with my family since I was little and was raised by this sea. After growing up and coming home, besides applying what I learned, being a fisherman also brings a very decent income." Xu Qinyuan said Yunlin's nearshore waters are rich in fishery products, with different fish species migrating through all four seasons, especially the winter mullet season. Every winter, fog easily forms at sea, and that is the best time to go out, but once a wind farm is set up, fishermen's safety at sea will be affected.
"We don't want short-term subsidies or compensation, please give the fishing grounds back to us." Xu Qinyuan showed the fishermen's sales slips on the spot and said the company can set up a wind farm, but please withdraw from the traditional fishing grounds. "Before the wind farm appeared, a fisherman's daily catch income alone was in the tens of thousands of yuan. After the wind farm started being built, my income for July was only 70,000 to 80,000 yuan." What fishermen want is sustainable, safe fishing grounds to support their families.
Dade publicly claimed that fishermen deliberately damaged their own fishing gear in order to receive compensation. The four fishermen shook their heads on the spot and stated solemnly: "Our fishing gear all has to be specially made to order. It's not like stationery that's easy to buy. Fishing gear easily costs 100,000 to 200,000 yuan. How could we fishermen possibly joke around with the tools we rely on for a living!"
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