Marine fishery resources are in crisis, and environmental groups are urging the Ocean Affairs Council to get on track as soon as possible.

Over the past year, Taiwan, China has seen many major marine incidents, such as stranded oil pollution, sea turtles eating plastic waste, rampant sea urchin harvesting, and the killing of the protected Napoleon fish (humphead wrasse). Although the Ocean Affairs Council Organization Act was passed last year, stipulating that an "Ocean Affairs Council" should be established under the Executive Yuan to specifically oversee marine affairs, it has still not been launched to date.

Several civil society groups and Shao Kuang-chao, a research fellow at Academia Sinica who has studied fish for 40 years, held a press conference today, hoping that President Tsai Ing-wen would clearly respond with a timetable for the establishment of the Ocean Affairs Council. Several legislators attended to express support. Among them, Yao Wen-chih said he would push for the draft Ocean Ministry Organization Act in the Legislative Yuan, so that the current Ocean Affairs Council can be completed in one step and incorporate related ministries and agencies that have long been difficult to handle, such as the Fisheries Agency and the Maritime and Port Bureau.

There is a law but no action, and civil groups worry the "Ocean Affairs Council" will sink without a trace

A year ago, the Ocean Affairs Council Organization Act passed its third reading in the Legislative Yuan, finally moving forward one step the political slogan of an "ocean nation" that had been proclaimed for 20 years. However, because the act did not specify an exact date for the organization to be launched, and in early March this year Legislator Tuan Yi-kang questioned that the two agencies under the Ocean Affairs Council (abbreviated as OAC) lacked complete supporting measures and demanded that the establishment of the organization be postponed.

Later, after active visits by many parties, including the Dragon King Loves the Earth Association, the Environmental Information Association, the Wilderness Protection Association, the Mazu Fish Conservation Alliance, and Shao Kuang-chao, chief executive officer of the Biodiversity Research Center at Academia Sinica, Tuan Yi-kang said he would support the government in establishing a dedicated marine agency.

Now legislators from both the ruling and opposition parties have no clear objections, but civil groups worry that, with no clear response from the Executive Yuan, the OAC remains stuck in the predicament of "having a law but no one to run it." Several incumbent legislators from both the blue and green camps, such as Chen Man-li, Chiang Wan-an, Lai Jui-lung, and Yao Wen-chih, all expressed their positions at today's (6th) press conference, hoping the Executive Yuan would speed up.

Hoping the OAC will be inaugurated next year and upgraded within two years

Lin Ai-lung said the specific inauguration time of the current OAC is unclear. "We hope the best case is that it is launched on New Year's Day next year." and upgraded to a Ministry of Ocean Affairs within two years to solve the various difficulties facing the current OAC. This has also been the main demand of the long-running petition.

Legislator Yao Wen-chih further said at the press conference that he would push for the draft Ocean Ministry Organization Act within the Legislative Yuan, changing the current Ocean Affairs Council Organization Act into a one-step arrangement, without having to go through organizational upgrading again; Lai Jui-lung, drawing on his own experience as former director-general of the Kaohsiung City Marine Bureau, said, "Kaohsiung already has a single bureau-level office for marine affairs, but there is no counterpart unit at the central level, so agencies that move ahead first are instead effectively punished."

Research fellow Shao Kuang-chao said he has been engaged in fish research for 40 years, "If conservation work is not carried out urgently now, in the future there will be no fish left to study."