Fisheries Agency,Ministry of Agriculture

Directions on Hygiene Management of Distant Water Fishing Vessels Registered to Export Fishery Products to the European Union

Legislative History

1. Promulgated on 16 April 2007 by the Council of Agriculture,

   Executive Yuan under Order No. Nung-sou-yu-tzu 0961330892.

2. Article 19 amended and promulgated on 29 April 2008 by the 

   Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan under Order No. Nung-

   sou-yu-tzu 0971330884.

3. Part of these directions, Appendix 2 of Article 5 and Appendix

   6 of Article 11 amended and promulgated on 20 November 2009 by

   the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan under Order No. 

   Nung-sou-yu-tzu 0971333045. 

4. Appendix 1 and 2 of Article 5 and Appendix 3 of Article 6 

   amended and promulgated on 4 August 2010 by the Council of 

   Agriculture, Executive Yuan under Order No. Nung-sou-yu-tzu 

   0991331006.

5. Part of these directions and Appendix 4 of Article 8 amended 

   and promulgated on 17 January 2011 by the Council of 

   Agriculture, Executive Yuan under Order No. Nung-sou-yu-tzu 

   1001330940.

6. Article 3, Article 20, Appendix 1 and 2 of Article 5, Appendix

   3 of Article 6, Appendix 6 of Article 11 and Appendix 7 of 

   Article 19 amended and promulgated on 12 September 2012 by the 

   Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan under Order No. Nung-

   sou-yu-tzu 1011331038 and became effective on the date of 

   promulgation.

7. Article 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 amended and promulgated on 2 

   June 2015 by the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan under 

   Order No. Nung-sou-yu-tzu 1041334216A and became effective on 

   the date of promulgation.

Article 1

To promote hygiene management of distant water fishing vessels and 

ensure hygiene of catch and fishery products and export procedures 

meeting with provisions set forth in Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004 

and Regulation (EC) No. 853/2004 by the European Union, these 

directions are hereby enacted by the Council of Agriculture, 

Executive Yuan (hereinafter referred to as "this Council").

Article 2

Fisheries Agency of this Council is the competent authority of 

these directions. If deemed necessary, Fisheries Agency may 

commission or designate domestic/foreign authority (hereinafter 

referred to as “the designated authority”) to conduct hygiene 

inspection of distant water fishing vessels and captains’hygiene 

training.

The designated authority shall conduct hygiene inspection of 

distant water fishing vessels and captains’ hygiene training in 

accordance with these directions.

The designated authority conducting the hygiene inspection of 

distant water fishing vessels and captains’ hygiene training 

shall be proclaimed by Fisheries Agency of this Council.

Article 3

Any fishery operator who intends to export catch of distant water 

fishing vessels to the European Union shall complete the 

registration of such vessels as approved fishing vessels exporting 

catch to the European Union (hereinafter referred to as “the 

European Union registered distant water fishing vessels”), and 

the hygiene of catch shall meet relevant regulations of the 

European Union.

In the event that catch of distant water fishing vessels are 

transshipped by carrier vessels and exported to the European 

Union, such carrier vessels shall be registered as approved 

carrier vessels as well, and the hygiene of catch shall meet 

relevant regulations of the European Union. 

In the event that catch to be exported to the European Union are 

directly stored in frozen warehouses and then exported in 

containers, such frozen warehouses shall be in accordance with 

Standards for Frozen Warehouses Exporting Food promulgated by 

Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection of Ministry of 

Economic Affairs.

Article 4 

Any fishery operator applying for registration of his/her distant 

water fishing vessels shall pass the hygiene inspection which 

includes document review and on-board inspection.

Article 5

Any fishery operator applying for registration of his/her distant 

water fishing vessels shall, through the distant water fishery 

organization he/she belongs to, submit the application form 

(format as shown in Appendix 1) together with the following 

documents to Fisheries Agency of this Council or the designated 

authority for document review.

(1) Basic information;

(2) Copy of the fishing license;

(3) Layout of holds;

(4) Organization chart of crew and illustration of positions 

    in charge of hygiene management;

(5) Captain’s certificate of hygiene training;

(6) Catch-processing equipments and illustration of hygiene 

    management;

(7) Self-inspection sheets of the European Union registered 

    distant water fishing vessels;

(8) Attachments (please number pages in accordance with the 

    following sequence) 

   i.  Photos of catch-processing equipments;

   ii. Monitoring record of fish hold temperature of the latest 

       trip. Any distant water fishing vessel newly installed with 

       a temperature recorder shall submit a testing record of its 

       freezer equipments;

   iii. Plans of Hygiene Management and Hazard Analysis and 

        Critical Control Points (HACCP);

   iv.  Others.

Upon receiving applications from fishery operators, Fisheries 

Agency of this Council or the designated authority shall complete 

the document review within fifteen days and inform fishery 

operators to arrange on-board inspection. Where there’s any error 

in the submitted information or certificates are not in conformity 

with requirements, Fisheries Agency of this Council or the 

designated authority shall notify fishery operators to submit 

relevant supplementary document(s) within required timeframe. The 

application shall be rejected if no supplementary document(s) is 

submitted within required timeframe.

The distant water fishery organization referred to in paragraph 1 

shall be proclaimed and designated by Fisheries Agency of this 

Council.

Article 6

Fisheries Agency of this Council or the designated authority shall 

conduct on-board inspection within fifteen days after distant 

water fishing vessels applying for registration have passed the 

document review.

Criteria for on-board inspection are listed in Appendix 3 and 

shall include the item of interview with captains.

Article 7

Upon completion of on-board inspection, Fisheries Agency of this 

Council or the designated authority shall inform fishery operators 

of the result in written within seven days. Where there is 

disagreement with the result, Fisheries Agency of this Council may 

invite authorities concerned, scholars and experts to establish a 

Review Committee for re-examination. Upon reaching the conclusion 

of re-examination, Fisheries Agency of this Council shall inform 

fishery operators in written within seven days.  

Fisheries Agency of this Council shall compile distant water 

fishing vessels that pass the hygiene inspection as lists and 

forward to the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection of 

Ministry of Economic Affairs for submission to the European Union 

for registration as approved distant water fishing vessels 

exporting catch to the European Union. For distant fishing vessels 

that fail the on-board hygiene inspection, fishery operators of 

such vessels may improve deficiencies and apply for re-evaluation 

within three months upon the receipt of notification of failure. 

Fisheries Agency of this Council or the designated authority shall 

arrange on-board re-evaluation within fifteen days upon the 

receipt of applications from fishery operators. In the event of 

failing re-evaluation, fishery operators shall re-submit 

applications in accordance with Article 5.

Article 8

The registration is valid for five years. Fishery operators shall 

re-apply for hygiene inspection within six months before the date 

the registration expires in accordance with Article 5.

Any European Union registered distant water fishing vessels shall 

undertake triennial follow-up hygiene inspection after the date it 

passed the hygiene inspection. If deemed necessary, the frequency 

of triennial follow-up hygiene inspection may be increased. The 

principle items of triennial follow-up hygiene inspection are 

hygiene maintenance (as shown in Appendix 4). Where a European 

Union registered distant water fishing vessel fails the triennial 

follow-up hygiene inspection, its fishery operator may apply for 

re-evaluation within three months upon the receipt of notification 

of failure. Fisheries Agency of this Council or the designated 

authority shall arrange on-board re-evaluation within fifteen days 

upon receipt of application from the fishery operator.

For any European Union registered distant water fishing vessel 

that fails the triennial follow-up hygiene inspection, its fishery 

operator shall re-apply in accordance with Article 5.  

Article 9

Captains of distant water fishing vessels applying for 

registration shall receive a minimum of 12-hour hygiene training 

from Fisheries Agency of this Council or the designated authority. 

Hygiene training shall include relevant regulations of the 

European Union, items for fishing vessel hygiene inspection, 

hygiene management of catch, and notes for signing the Captain 

Declaration.

Article 10

Captains who passed hygiene training shall be issued certificates 

with the validity of five years by Fisheries Agency of this 

Council. Fisheries Agency shall also file qualified captains’ 

signatures.

Within the validity of captains’ certificates, Fisheries Agency 

of this Council or the designated authority may conduct training 

in latest hygiene management regulations by correspondence for the 

needs of hygiene management.

Captains shall apply to Fisheries Agency of this Council or the 

designated authority for re-training within six months before the 

validity of certificates expires. The re-training shall be for a 

minimum of six hours, and certificates shall be renewed for 

captains who pass the re-training.

Article 11

Fisheries Agency of this Council may authorize trained and 

qualified captains to verify whether distant water fishing vessels 

on which the captains are employed and the catch comply with 

regulations of the European Union, in accordance with the 

Checklist for Captain Declaration (as shown in Appendix 5), so as 

to sign and issue the Captain Declaration (as shown in Appendix 

6). The Captain Declaration shall be signed and written in 

triplicate.

The list of the authorized captains as referred to in the 

preceding paragraph shall be proclaimed by Fisheries Agency of 

this Council.

Article 12

In case of any of the following circumstances, captains of the 

European Union registered distant water fishing vessels shall not 

sign and issue the Captain Declaration.

（1） Captains do not receive training pursuant to Article 10;

（2） Catch temperature during fishing operation is not in 

      compliance with regulations of the European Union;

（3） Environment of fishing vessel is contaminated during 

      fishing operation;

（4） Catch is not harvested by the fishing vessel on which the 

      captain is employed.

In the event that any captain signs and issues the Captain 

Declaration without complying with these directions and the non-

compliance is considered as severe, Fisheries Agency of this 

Council may request the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and 

Inspection of Ministry of Economic Affairs to notify the European 

Union.

Article 13

In case of any of the following circumstances, Fisheries Agency of 

this Council shall request the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and 

Inspection of Ministry of Economic Affairs to notify the European 

Union to delete the fishing vessel from the list of European Union 

registered distant water fishing vessels.

（1） Fishery operators apply for hygiene inspection with forged 

      documents;

（2） Fishery operators do not re-apply for hygiene inspection 

      or fail to pass the triennial follow-up hygiene inspection 

      pursuant to Article 8, except for fishing vessels that are 

      under re-evaluation; 

（3） Fishery operators fail to take corrective actions for 

      catch that has been verified as non-conformity to the 

      hygiene regulations of the European Union, and the non-

      conformity is considered as severe;

（4） Loss of fishing vessel;

（5） Fishery operators do not submit relevant information 

      pertaining to hygiene of catch pursuant to these directions.

Article 14

Distant water fishing vessels whose registrations are being 

deleted by the European Union may re-apply for hygiene inspection 

one year after the date that the Bureau of Standards, Metrology 

and Inspection of Ministry of Economic Affairs notify the European 

Union for deletion.

Captains who are being notified to the European Union by the 

Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection of Ministry of 

Economic Affairs as not qualified to issue the Captain Declaration 

may re-apply for training 3 years after the date of notification.

Article 15

For any European Union registered distant water fishing vessel, if 

there is any change of its information, fishery operator and 

vessel name, the fishery operator shall submit certification 

document of such changes to Fisheries Agency of this Council.

In the event that the change of information in the preceding 

paragraph is related to the registration of the European Union, 

Fisheries Agency of this Council shall forward to the Bureau of 

Standards, Metrology and Inspection of Ministry of Economic 

Affairs for notification to the European Union.

Article 16

Fishery operators shall submit or fax the sales information lot by 

lot within seven days after the catch of European Union registered 

distant water fishing vessel are exported to the European Union.

Captains shall submit records of fishing vessels temperature of 

each voyage to fishery operators for filing. Such records shall be 

the ground for future hygiene inspection and triennial follow-up 

hygiene inspection.

Article 17

In the event that catch of European Union registered distant water 

fishing vessel are exported to non European Union regions, the 

hygiene inspection of fishing vessels, training of captains and 

the issue of the Captain Declaration may be conducted in 

accordance with theses directions.

Article 18

(Repealed.)

Article 19

In the event that catch of distant water fishing vessels are sold 

to processing plants that export fishery products to the European 

Union, the Sale Record of Catch Exported to the European Union (as 

show in Appendix 7) shall be submitted to fish trade agents, 

processing plants exporting fishery products to the European 

Union, and the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection of 

Ministry of Economic Affairs in sequence.  

Article 20

For catch of distant water fishing vessels directly stored in 

frozen warehouses and then loaded in containers or directly loaded 

in containers for exportation to the European Union, fishery 

operators shall notify Fisheries Agency of this Council ten days 

before such catch are transported to the Republic of China and 

submit records of catch temperature to Fisheries Agency of this 

Council to forward to the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and 

Inspection of Ministry of Economic Affairs for conducting 

inspection of catch and issue of hygiene certificates.