The Fisheries Administration said Friday that it will respect the decision by a group of eight Pacific island countries to ban fishing in 4.5 million square kilometers of high seas in a bid to save rapidly depleting tuna stocks. Officials from the group known as the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) , which controls areas responsible for a quarter of the world's tuna supply, agreed to extend the ban to new areas earlier in the day. Huang Hung-yen, a section chief at the Fisheries Administration, said Taiwan's annual haul of tuna and similar fish in the Pacific is about 200,000 tons. The figure constitutes one-sixth of the country's total coastal, deep-sea and aquacultural fishing haul of 1.3 million tons. Huang said there are already two high sea areas in the Pacific that prohibit fishing. In addition, large groups of fish often migrate into economic zones of the island nations, where Taiwan's vessels have to pay for fishing rights. But if the vessels only fish in open sea areas, the fishing haul will be greatly reduced, he said. 'Taiwan will respect the decision by the Pacific island nations and operate in the areas with a spirit of cooperation and coordination as in the past, ' he added. 