Chapter I General Principles
Article 1
The Act Governing the Investment and Operation of Non-Republic
of China (ROC) Flagged Fishing Vessels (hereinafter referred to
as “the Act”) is enacted to regulate persons with the
nationality of the Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as
“the ROC") who engage in fishery by investing in and operating
non-ROC flagged fishing vessels, for the purpose of conserving
marine fisheries resources, whereby contributing to good
governance of international fisheries.


Article 2
The competent authority of the Act is the Council of
Agriculture, Executive Yuan.


Article 3
Terms used in the Act shall be defined as follows:
(1) “overseas” means maritime areas beyond the territorial sea
and the exclusive economic zone of the ROC.
(2) “invest/investment” means using a certain amount of money
or sharing, such as funding, fishing equipment or
facilities, and rights, solely or jointly in the operation
of fishery.
(3) “operate/operation” means operating businesses of fishing,
trading, transporting, import, and export of catch or
fisheries products, using one’s own or chartered fishing
vessels(s).
(4) “engage in fishery” means the conducting activities of
fishing, trading, transporting, import, and export of catch
or fisheries products, using one’s own or chartered
fishing vessel(s).
(5) “fish laundering” means activities that constitute any of
the following behaviors:
i.selling or transacting in, under the name of a national
fishing vessel, catch or fisheries products of species
regulated by international fisheries organizations and
caught by any non-ROC flagged fishing vessel.
ii.selling or transacting in, under the name of a non-ROC
flagged fishing vessel that is invested and operated by a
person with the nationality of the ROC, catch or
fisheries products of species regulated by international
fisheries organizations and caught by any other fishing
vessels;
(6) “interested party” means any person who holds or maintains
information relating to catch amount, fishing periods,
fishing gears, fishing methods, and investment and
operation of fishing vessels.
The certain amount of money or sharing as referred to in
subparagraph (2) of the preceding paragraph shall be announced
by the competent authority.


Article 4
Any person with the nationality of the ROC is not permitted to
engage in fishery overseas by investing in and operating any
non-ROC flagged fishing vessel, without prior authorization of
the competent authority.
In case of any of the following circumstances, the competent
authority shall not authorize the investment and operation of
any non-ROC flagged fishing vessel as referred to in the
preceding paragraph, and the competent authority shall revoke
the authorization that has already been granted:
(1) The flag State of the non-ROC flagged fishing vessel
concerned lacks mechanism in controlling and managing its
fishing vessels.
(2) The flag State of the non-ROC flagged fishing vessel
concerned is identified as illegal, unreported, and
unregulated (IUU) fishing non-cooperating country or is
subject to a letter of identification for more than 2 years
by other States, international fisheries organizations, or
other economic integrated organizations.
(3) The fishery type and fishing area of the non-ROC flagged
fishing vessel concerned are under the management of an
international fisheries organization and the flag State of
the non-ROC flagged fishing vessel concerned is not a party
or cooperating non-party to that international fisheries
organization.
(4) The non-ROC flagged fishing vessel concerned is listed on a
IUU fishing vessel list of an international fisheries
organization.
Conditions for the authorization as referred to in paragraph 1, application procedures, review, conditions for revocation of the
authorization, and other requirements shall be prescribed by the
competent authority.


Article 5
Any person who obtains the authorization in accordance with
Article 4 shall make regular reports of data relating to fishing
operations to the competent authority.
The period, types, content, manner, and other matters relating
to the reporting of data as referred to in the preceding
paragraph shall be prescribed by the competent authority.


Chapter II Distant Water Fisheries Permit and Management
Article 6
Any person with the nationality of the ROC who engages in
fishery overseas by investing in and operating any non-ROC
flagged fishing vessel shall comply with regulations prescribed
by the competent authority which take into consideration
conservation measures adopted by international fisheries
organizations as well as relevant regulations as prescribed by
the concerned flag or coastal State(s).
The regulations as referred to in the preceding paragraph
include management measures relating to authorization to fish,
permitted fishing areas, fishing periods, vessel position
reporting, fishing gears, fishing methods, catch quota, and
other requirements.


Article 7
For the purpose of fisheries management, the competent authority
may require any interested party to submit reports on catch
amount, fishing periods, fishing gears, and fishing methods.
If deems necessary, the competent authority may dispatch
personnel to investigate interested parties and relevant
organizations or institutions, and require the provision or
submission of any information relating to the investment and
operation of non-ROC flagged fishing vessels concerned.
In case of urgency in providing the reports or conducting the
investigations as referred to in the preceding two paragraphs,
the competent authority may dispatch personnel to conduct
inspections at relevant sites and question interested parties.
In carrying out investigations or inspections as referred to in
paragraphs 1 to 3 above, the personnel dispatched shall present
documents identifying their authorization, or such badge that
proves their identification.
The interested parties, organizations, and institutions shall
not evade, obstruct, or refuse the investigations, inspections,
or requirements for submission of reports and provision or
submission of information as provided in paragraphs 1 to 3
above.


Article 8
Any person with the nationality of the ROC who engages in
fishery overseas by investing in and operating any non-ROC
flagged fishing vessel shall not commit any of the following
serious infringements:
(1) Investment in or operation of any fishing vessel as referred
to in Article 4, paragraph 2.
(2) Fishing without permission from the flag State concerned.
(3) Conducting transshipment at sea or in port, or landing in
port without authorization from the flag State concerned.
(4) Fishing in waters under the jurisdiction of any coastal
State without authorization therefrom.
(5) Falsifying, altering, or concealing vessel names, names of
registry ports, or international radio call signs.
(6) Not installing on board vessel monitoring system (VMS)
pursuant to regulations of the flag State concerned,
intentionally causing the VMS to misreport vessel positions,
or
rendering VMS non-functional when fishing.
(7) Continuing catching species with catch limit when the total
catch of such species of a fishing vessel has exceeded the
catch limit allowed by the flag State concerned..
(8) Fishing in prohibited fishing areas or seasons as
established by international fisheries organizations.
(9) Using fishing gears as prohibited by international fisheries
organizations.
(10) Fishing for, retaining, transshipping, landing, or selling
species as prohibited by international fisheries
organizations.
(11) Not submitting or filling in logbooks or catch reports, in
violation of regulations of the flag States concerned, or
misreporting logbooks or catch reports.
(12) Failing to file reports in accordance with Article 5, or
filing false reports.
(13) Refusing, evading, or obstructing any observer dispatched
by the flag State concerned or any international fisheries
organization to conduct observation tasks.
(14) Refusing, evading, or obstructing the investigation
conducted by the competent authority pursuant to Article 7,
paragraph 2, or the inspection conducted by the competent
authority pursuant to Article 7, paragraph 3.
(15) Concealing, altering, or destroying any evidence related to
violation of the Act.
(16) Providing catch certificate documents of a fishing vessel
for the use of other fishing vessel(s), or using catch
certificate documents of other fishing vessel(s) for
selling catch caught by itself.
(17) Falsification or alteration of catch certificate documents,
using catch certificate documents not issued to the catch
concerned, or intentionally using catch certificate
documents that are falsified or altered to sell catch or
fisheries products.
(18) Participating in joint fishing with, transshipping with, or
supplying any fishing vessel listed on IUU fishing vessel
lists of international fisheries organizations or any
stateless vessel.
The prohibited fishing seasons and areas as referred to in
subparagraph (8), the prohibited fishing gears as referred to in
subparagraph (9), the prohibited species as referred to in
subparagraph (10), and the IUU fishing vessel lists as referred
to in subparagraph (18) of the preceding paragraph shall be
promulgated by the competent authority.


Article 9
Any person with the nationality of the ROC that invests in and
operates any non-ROC flagged fishing vessel and engages in fish
laundering shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a period
between 6 months and 3 years, and in addition thereto, may be
subject to a criminal fine between 6 million and 30 million New
Taiwan Dollars.
In case that a representative of any legal person, or an agent
of any legal or natural person commits the violations stipulated
in the preceding paragraph, in addition to the penalties in
accordance with the preceding paragraph, a criminal fine as
referred to in the preceding paragraph shall also be imposed
upon the legal or natural person concerned.
Any person with the nationality of the ROC who commits the
violations as provided in paragraph 1 outside the territories of
the ROC shall be punished in accordance with the Act,
irrespective of whether her/his act is punishable under the law
of the country where the violations are committed.
Any person with the nationality of the ROC who invests in and
operates any non-ROC flagged fishing vessel and commits the
violations as provided in paragraph 1 shall be revoked the
authorization of such investment and operation by the competent
authority.


Article 10
Any person with the nationality of the ROC that violates Article
8, paragraph 1 shall be punished in accordance with the
following provisions, and the competent authority may revoke
his/her authorization to invest in and operate the concerned
non-ROC flagged fishing vessel(s):
(1) For any fishing vessel 500 Gross Tonnage (GT) or above: a
fine between 6 million and 30 million New Taiwan Dollars.
(2) For any fishing vessel 100 GT or above, and less than 500
GT: a fine between 4 million and 20 million New Taiwan
Dollars.
(3) For any fishing vessel less than 100 GT: a fine between 2
million and 10 million New Taiwan Dollars.
In case that the value of catch or fisheries products concerned
exceeds the fine imposed pursuant to the provisions as
stipulated in the preceding paragraph, an amount of a fine for
up to 5 times of the value of such catch or fisheries products
shall be imposed.
Any person with the nationality of the ROC who has committed the
same provision of the serious infringements as stipulated in
Article 8, paragraph 1 for 2 times within 3 years, or different
serious infringements as stipulated in Article 8, paragraph 1
for 3 times within 3 years shall be punished in accordance with
the following provisions, and the competent authority shall
revoke his/her authorization to invest in and operate the
concerned non-ROC flagged fishing vessel(s):
(1) For any fishing vessel 500 GT or above: a fine between 9
million and 45 million New Taiwan Dollars.
(2) For any fishing vessel 100 GT or above, and less than 500
GT: a fine between 6 million and 30 million New Taiwan
Dollars.
(3) For any fishing vessel less than 100 GT: a fine between 3
million and 15 million New Taiwan Dollars.
In case that the value of catch or fisheries products concerned
exceeds the fine imposed pursuant to the provisions as
stipulated in the preceding paragraph, an amount of a fine for
up to 8 times of the value of such catch or fisheries products
shall be imposed.
The value of catch or fisheries products as referred to in
paragraphs 2 and 4 shall be calculated based on the average
prices of such catch or fisheries products in domestic fish
markets in the preceding 3 years.


Article 11
Any person with the nationality of the ROC that engages in
fishery overseas by investing in and operating any non-ROC
flagged fishing vessel and commits any of the following
violations shall be imposed upon a fine between2 million and 10
million New Taiwan Dollars, and consecutive punishments may be
imposed for repeated violations:
(1) Engaging in fishery overseas by investing in and operating
any non-ROC flagged fishing vessel without obtaining the
authorization, in violation of Article 4, paragraph 1.
(2) Failing to comply with relevant regulations on fishing as
stipulated by the flag or coastal States concerned, in
violation of Article 6, paragraph 1; or failing to comply
with regulations regarding authorization to fish, permitted
fishing areas, fishing periods, vessel position reporting,
fishing gears, fishing methods, or catch quota as stipulated
by the competent authority pursuant to Article 6, paragraph
2, except for those regarding the serious infringements.
(3) Refusing, evading, or obstructing the requirements by the
competent authority to submit reports pursuant to Article 7,
paragraph 1.


Article 12
For any person with the nationality of the ROC that invests in
and operate any foreign fishing vessel, and engages in fish
laundering, in case that such person at the same time invests in
and operates any fishing vessel under the flag of the ROC, such
person may be subject to deduction of catch quota from that
allocated to the national vessel(s) in question at a level
equivalent to the amount of the laundered fish.


Article 13
The Act shall become effective 6 months after its promulgation.