Taiwan Says It Will Stop Using Drift Nets in North Pacific in ’92

The Taiwanese government, under threat of U.S. trade sanctions, said Friday that it will comply with a United Nations ban on fishing with enormous drift nets in the northern Pacific Ocean.

Taiwan said it will comply by next July 1 with the ban on use of what environmentalists have been calling “curtains of death.” The huge nets can stretch across as much as 30 miles of ocean, killing all marine life in their path.

“In the past, we said we respected the U.N. resolution in principle but did not make the final decision,” said Albert Lin, spokesman for Taiwan’s Coordination Council for North American Affairs.

The Bush Administration put Taiwan and South Korea on notice last week that they could face sanctions because of continued fishing with the nets. South Korea as yet has made no announcement regarding use of the nets.