Fishermen on the west of the island used to look forward to the winter when cold currents from north Asia would bring huge shoals of mullets to the Taiwan Straits to lay eggs.

Over the past few decades they had amassed a fortune from the fish and their eggs, which have become a popular delicacy on the Japanese dining tables.

Fisherman Chen Fu-chu told the Taipei-based United Evening News people working the seas off Tungshihship could catch up to 300 mullets a day during a 20-day period in the winter around a decade ago.

Some would even catch up to a tonne a day, earning more than 100,000 Taiwan dollars (3,095 US), he said.

"But that has long gone from my memory," Chen said.

Lee Kuo-tien, president of the National Taiwan Ocean University, blamed warming waters around Taiwan and the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, which has led to a reduction in the volume of water flowing from the Yangtze River into the ocean, the paper said.

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