Fishermen from southern Tainan County came to Taipei yesterday to stage a protest at the Control Yuan, the nation's highest watchdog agency supervising the operations of government agencies and public servants.

They charged that the re-opening of the giant fishing trawler operations by the Fisheries Agency under the COA has undercut their catch by 50 percent in recent months and is threatening their livelihood.

Tainan County Magistrate Su Huan-chih said the agency has ignored the fishermen's earlier petition and that they are protesting the resumption of trawler operations that tend to round up all marine animals of all sizes in their paths.

He urged the central government to take quick action to suspend the operations of such boats with hauling nets in the fishing areas of three to 12 nautical miles from the coastline of Tainan County.

Su said his county government could be forced to rent fishing vessels to block the operations of the much bigger trawlers in the designated fishing zone if the central government fails to take effective steps.

Officials at the Fisheries Agency said the re-opening of the trawler operations was implemented at the request from Kaohsiung County's fishermen who sought a relaxation of the rules.

Kaohsiung fishermen asked for easing the strict regulations, saying the new and revised design of trawlers are unlike the older models that could annihilate all marine life, big and small, in their wake. The modern trawlers will inflict much less harm and should not pose threats to fishermen operating smaller fishing vessels, they asserted.

The COA officials explained the resumption of trawler operations is being carried out only on an experimental basis for the purpose of research and study for a one-year period running from September this year to the end of August next year.

This is why the agency had issued permits to only 41 trawlers with weights ranging from 50 to 100 metric tons, plus one under 50 tons.

But fishermen from Tainan County said the agency has violated the government's own regulations banning the use of trawlers in coastal areas.

They argued that there is no need for such a large number of more than 40 trawler ships for research purpose.

The agency's new policy counters an international trend as more nations have restricted or prohibited the trawler operations that are posing growing threats to the depletion of fish stock in the oceans, they added.