Belize-Taiwan Technical Cooperation for Deep Sea Fishing Resource Exploration Program

Carrying out the survey is Doctor Hsin-Ming Yeh, a fisheries expert from Taiwan’s Fisheries Research Institute and Doctor Sheng-Ping Wan, a fisheries expert from National Taiwan Ocean University; they are joined by technical staff from the Government of Belize. The Acting Fisheries Administrator says that the Taiwanese experts will engage with the national fisheries authority, key government agencies, businesses, fishers, and other stakeholders in a fact-finding mission on current and future fishing activities. There will be a report on the findings on Friday.

Rigoberto Quintana

Rigoberto Quintana, Acting Fisheries Administrator

“This week we have a scoping mission, a fact-finding mission. We have two professors, two doctors from Taiwan University, working along with our staff. They are in the field right now and hope that Friday we should have a debriefing and see what recommendations can be put forward to the Government of Belize and the Government of Taiwan so that there should be further collaboration.”

Duane Moody

“In this first step do we also look at the capacity of our fisheries to be able to have this kind of alternative?”

Rigoberto Quintana

“Yes, we have to look at all the activities within the value chain and see how best we can support fishers to participate in these activities and also looking at the research component, building more capacity for the fisheries department and other institutions to be able to manage the resources, to be able to do the enforcement out there in the deeper areas.”