Feasibility Assessment of Commercial Port Authorities Developing Recreational Fishing Industry in Taiwan

Abstract

　　The objective of this research is to assess feasibility of commercial port authorities developing recreational fishing industry in Taiwan To fulifill this objective four aspects of developing recreational fishing industry in commercial harbors were analyzed including legal feasibility suitability of port sites financial viability and potential demand for recreational fishing In addition the views of anglers on the current as well as future management measures were explored Suggestions were accordingly proposed 　　Surveys for anglers were conducted at nine commercial ports A total of 3 382 valid questionnaires were obtained The results showed that: 1) the average age of anglers is 40 7 and the major motivation for recreational fishing is personal interest and leisure; 2) anglers generally go fishing two times a week and go to harbors by cars or motorcycles; 3) anglers mostly agree to the current management mode of fishing sites which is a specific angler association being entrusted by port authorities to manage the site the payment of cleaning fees which were between 100 and 200 NTD Analyzing the legal feasibility showed that port authorities is eligible to run recreational fishing business since it belongs to tourism and recreation which is allowed according to Article 2 of Taiwan International Ports Corporation Ltd Establishment Act However Article 36 of Commercial Port Act stipulates that angler associations are the ones to be entrusted to manage fishing sites not port authorities themselves Furthermore breakwaters are public facilities and it is therefore doubtful that port authorities can use public facilities to run recreational fishing business to make profits 　　The data of wind speed availability of unused spaces around fishing areas and types of users were used to analyse the suitability of port sites The anslysis showed that Budai harbor and Anping harbor are relatively suitable ports to develop recreational fishing industry 　　Market demand for recreational fishing was　investigated by evaluating the　number of potential anglers in Taiwan The result showed that the percentage of anglers at commercial harbors was very low less than 2% of the whole　population of angers This indicates that the potential demand for recreational fishing at commercial harbors is low 　　Analyzing financial viability showed that all harbors presented negative net benefits per year The total loss would be 12 76 million NTD Based the analysis of four aspects it was conducted that the feasibility of port authorities developing recreational fishing industry is low 　　In the end suggestions were proposed: 1) in addition to commercial harbors the government actively establishes other recreational fishing sites; 2) the current management of fishing sites is maintained; 3) in light of this research mostly relying on assumed data it is recommended to strengthen to collect data on the actual number of anglers and the number of days open for fishing; 4) an ad hoc committee is established including experts anglers and port authorities to regularly check the current operation mode and take adaptive measures to improve recreational fishing quality at commercial harbors 　　The goal of research is to assess the feasibility of developing recreational fishing in Taiwan commercial ports The research conducts a survey with anglers in commercial ports Based on the servey results the feasibility assessment will contain four parts: benefits locations appropriate assessment the number of anglers at ports and legality The angler questionnaire results indicate that: 1) the anglers’ average age is 40 7 and the motivation for fishing is personal interest and recreation; 2) the average period of anglers fishing in commercial ports is two times a week and the vehicles anglers mainly use are cars and scooters; 3) anglers agree with entrusting local fishing community to manage the fishing area; 4) the period of price they are willing to pay is between 100 and 200 NT The total benefits of nine ports are estimated -12 760 000 NT The suitable ports for fishing according to enviroment feature are Budai and Anping The number of anglers fishing in commercial ports is calculated between 3 567 and 19 359 The best way for TIPC to manage recreational fishing legally is entrusting local fishing community according to “The Commercial Port Law” Article 36 As mentioned above assessment feasibility of developing recreational fishing in Taiwan commercial ports by TIPC is bad The findings suggest that the best strategy would be entrusting local fishing community Second local fishing community should provide the clear annual data for example the number of anglers and opening fishing days

Date of Award	2020
Original language	English
Supervisor	Chung-Ling Chen (Supervisor)