Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is proposing a draft law amendment to increase the maximum fine for marine pollution from NT$1.5 million (US$48,523) to NT$300 million, an EPA official told Focus Taiwan.
The EPA is drafting an amendment to the Marine Pollution Control Act and setting up standards and guidelines for imposing penalties based on the size of ships and the financial conditions of ship owners in violation of the law, said Yeh Chun-hung, director of the EPA's Department of Water Quality.
The draft amendment will also contain a clause encouraging people to report infractions and offering rewards for tip-offs, Yeh said.
He made the remarks after government officials received a report on March 10 of an oil spill near Green Island that spread about 7.1 kilometers along the island's northern coast. It is considered the worst ecological disaster faced by the island—a major tourist destination—in fifty years. It was the first time the sea bed near Green Island had been polluted by oil, according to experts.
The most heavily polluted waters stretched 600 meters from the island's lighthouse in the northwest, through Jhongliao Harbor to Sleeping Beauty Rock, the Coast Guard Administration's Green Island Inspection Office chief Hsiao Su-ping said, adding that the seabed around the island was also affected by the oil.
The oil might have come from a cruise, cargo or other large ship, which might have dumped the oil in the high seas, from where it washed ashore, according to Hsiao. Cleanup is ongoing.
