A transition beyond traditional fisheries: Taiwan's experience with developing fishing tourism

Transforming fisheries into tourism has become a global trend. It arises mostly due to a decline in income generated by traditional fisheries, and fishers thus turn to seek alternatives by engaging in marine tourism activities. Taiwan has practiced this transformation policy for more than two decades, and fishing tourism has developed as a major outcome. This paper aims to investigate Taiwan's experience with developing this activity, with an emphasis on the emerging concerns it faces and anglers’ perception of trip quality and potential management measures. The results show that anglers had a general satisfaction with the service delivered by operators. However, concerns regarding sustainable development of this activity were identified, mostly involving ineffective enforcement of regulations against illegal fishing, conflicts of interest between commercial fishing and recreational fishing, lack of statistics on harvest, improper angler behavior, and competition from yachts. Lastly, management implications for sustainable fishing tourism were discussed, highlighting suggestions to alleviate the concerns, including strengthening management of the harvest, encouraging dialogue between commercial and recreational sectors, enhancing marine environmental stewardship among anglers, and improving coordination of management to create a fair and balanced environment for recreational fishing vessels and yachts.