Coast Guard boosting efforts to block Chinese fishing violations

Taipei, Aug. 18 (CNA) Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration (CGA) officials said Sunday they are ramping up efforts to prevent Chinese fishing boats from operating across borders, noting that only sporadic violations have been reported so far.

As of noon Sunday, only the outlying Matsu and Kinmen islands have reported a few cross-border Chinese fishing activities, the CGA's Kinmen-Matsu-Penghu Branch said in a press release.

All illegal fishing vessels have been expelled, the CGA said, adding that there were no mass-scale violations despite public concerns after China's three and a halfmonth fishing moratorium concluded on Aug. 16.

In response to potential offenses, however, the CGA said it had deployed one ship, 19 boats, 29 vehicles, 74 motorcycles and 301 personnel over the past two days.

The CGA also dismissed earlier media reports claiming that Chinese fishing boats were using fake automatic tracking systems (AIS) to appear as Taiwanese vessels.

Citing a marine patrol operation on the afternoon of Aug. 17, the CGA reported identifying about 20 Chinese fishing boats approximately 20 nautical miles outside the restricted waters around Penghu County, where no Taiwanese vessels or related AIS signals were detected.