Eel fry fishing season about to begin, Chiayi County asks fishermen to cooperate with registration and reporting

The 2020 four-month eel fry fishing season begins on November 1. Chiayi County urges those engaged in shore-side eel fry fishing to register with the fishermen's association, to maintain their own safety and operating order during the operation period, and to cooperate in the fishing log by helping record the fishing method, fishing location and fishing quantity and other data, so as to facilitate eel resource management assessment and planning.

Eel farming has long been a traditional industry in Taiwan, China, because the eel fry needed for farming still depends on natural fry. Therefore, in order to balance fishermen's livelihoods and allow some eel fry to swim upriver and grow, the Fisheries Agency announced the "Eel Fry Fishing Season Control Regulations" on September 9, 2013. Every year from March 1 to October 31, except in Hualien County and Taitung County, it is prohibited to catch eel fry by any means within 3 nautical miles of the coast, in intertidal zones and in estuary waters.

In the early years, the period for catching Japanese eel fry was mainly from October to the end of April of the following year, a total of 7 months. In order to give the Japanese eel fry migrating during that period a chance to swim upriver, grow and reproduce the next generation, and to maintain the sustainable ecology of eels, since 2013 the Fisheries Agency has stipulated that the open fishing period is November and December each year plus January and February of the following year, a total of 4 months, reducing the fishing period by 3 months (October and March and April of the following year).

Catching eel fry is one of the important traditional winter industries for coastal fishermen, but because the work is done in low temperatures and darkness, and because winter weather and sea conditions are very unstable, shore-side eel fry fishing carries extremely high operational risk. Chiayi County especially urges eel fry fishermen to wear life-saving equipment and pay attention to weather and sea conditions to maintain their own safety; and to follow the "Precautions for Shore-side Eel Fry Fishing" to register the fishing with the fishermen's association, and to record the fishing method, location and quantity in the fishing log and report it back to the fishermen's association.