Ⅳ. Follow-up and Institutional Analysis︱ The unusual nature of maritime labor means working conditions such as working hours and rest time stipulated by the Labor Standards Act are difficult to implement in practice. There are major differences in the work aboard inshore/offshore fishing vessels and distant water fishing vessels. Distant water fishing vessels operate for long periods at sea making them more similar to the crew of merchantmen. The labor rights of merchantmen crews are actually governed by the Seafarer Act, the ILO Maritime Labour Convention (2006) (Convention No. 186), and not the Labor Standards Act. At the same time, domestic and overseas-hired fishermen each fall under the authority of different regulatory systems and are managed under different laws. Abolishing the dual-track regulatory system requires a decision at a higher policy level. Past amendments to the three distant water fisheries laws however were already based on the adoption of the dual-track regulatory system. The aforementioned problems all increase the difficulty of applying the Labor Standards Act to fishermen hired overseas. Fishing vessel owners and fishermen hired overseas are unlikely to agree to be bound by Taiwan’s labor regulations in their labor contracts as well. If a separate set of regulations that account for the unusual nature of maritime labor is to be defined, this can’t be left completely up to the market to decide. The parts on protecting the health, safety, and dignity of fishermen, in particular, should still be guided by the spirit of the Labor Standards Act. Reference principles should be set such as maximum working hours and minimum wage aboard fishing ships. Such standards may be different from terrestrial labor but the differences should not be too pronounced 051