In the past, regulations only required businesses with registered commercial status to purchase liability insurance for water recreation activities. Many individual dive instructors had no access to insurance, leaving divers and students without coverage — until July 2023, when independent dive instructors were finally able to purchase insurance for their clients and students. Driving this change required solutions at the regulatory level. The BlueTrend editorial team sat down with one of the key advocates behind the reform, Legislator Chao Tien-lin, for an exclusive interview. We take a behind-the-scenes look at the coordination process, the challenges involved, and what steps come next to make the diving industry safer and more robust. Read on.
What Were the Challenges Chao Tien-lin Faced in Pushing for Better Diving Insurance?
In February 2023, the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications amended the Regulations for the Management of Water Recreation Activities, stipulating that "anyone who leads clients in water recreation activities for profit must carry liability insurance." Legislator Chao Tien-lin regards this as a major milestone in improving diving insurance — yet he notes that "initially, for the sake of administrative convenience, only businesses with registered commercial status were deemed eligible for insurance, which didn't really align with how Taiwan's diving industry actually operates."
On 2 August 2023, at the Legislative Yuan, Legislator Chao Tien-lin explains the legislative amendment issues.
In scuba diving, for example, more than half of all instructors work as freelance individuals without commercial registration. Even if they wanted to insure their clients, they simply couldn't obtain coverage. Legislator Chao Tien-lin noted that earlier in the year, the Pingtung County Professional Dive Instructors Union had petitioned his office, citing that "over half of Taiwan's dive instructors are practicing without any insurance."
So how did Legislator Chao and his congressional office team set about negotiating a path forward so that independent instructors could also be insured? Here is what the Editor has compiled from the exclusive interview.
Facilitating Cross-Ministry and Cross-Agency Coordination
Legislator Chao Tien-lin:
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First, we brought in the Tourism Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the supervising authority;
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Second, we involved the Insurance Bureau of the Financial Supervisory Commission, which needed to confirm whether such products could legally be sold;
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Third, we also invited the Non-Life Insurance Association to confirm whether its member companies would be willing to offer the relevant products.
Confronting the Sticking Points Head-On
Legislator Chao Tien-lin:
The first sticking point was the question of "whether commercial registration should be required." In practice, a dive shop with commercial registration might run several groups and multiple clients in a single day. When the volume exceeds what the shop can handle on its own, it brings in other instructors to assist — but those independent instructors couldn't be insured. This created a great deal of disorder. And realistically, an individual instructor isn't going to go through the trouble of registering a business just to take clients diving.
Insurance and commercial registration are two separate matters. A company must carry insurance and file its business tax returns legally.
In order to protect and promote diving as a sport — and given that the industry largely operates on an "independent instructor" business model — we wanted to bring that model into a formal framework and ensure both the operators (independent instructors) and consumers working within it are protected. The Tourism Bureau subsequently issued a clear administrative interpretation, adjusting the standard so that anyone engaged in activities of a for-profit nature would qualify. This gave the Insurance Bureau the basis it needed to recognise independent instructors as eligible insured parties.
Ongoing Refinement and Adjustment
Legislator Chao Tien-lin:
Some insurance providers still had reservations about whether an "independent instructor" could be confirmed as a clearly identifiable party to a contract. In response to that concern, the Tourism Bureau is also planning to compile a registry of independent instructors and place them under official guidance — a process that is currently underway.
More importantly, we need to help insurance companies understand that the number of people engaged in scuba diving in Taiwan is substantial, and that the business model, government policy framework, and legal administrative interpretations are all in place. For scuba diving specifically, insurance should be available regardless of whether one has commercial registration.
We will also be reminding individual instructors that if their revenue reaches a certain threshold, they are legally required to obtain commercial registration.
As the legislator put it: if everyone just puts in a little more effort, a great deal of progress can be made.
The Next Legislative Step: Chao Tien-lin Advocates for Freediving to Be Brought Under Regulation
Now that the relevant regulations have been improved and both dive shops and instructors can obtain insurance, Legislator Chao Tien-lin and his congressional office team turned their attention to freediving — a discipline whose participant numbers have been growing steadily. Several accidents have occurred this year alone, yet freediving is conspicuously absent from the specific provisions of the Regulations for the Management of Water Recreation Activities.
Freediving vs. Snorkeling: Moving Toward Clear Definitions
The legal definition of freediving does not appear in the Regulations for the Management of Water Recreation Activities. photo credit: 簡晨宇
Under Chapter 2, Section 2 of the Regulations for the Management of Water Recreation Activities, which sets out actual operational rules, diving activities are defined as "activities conducted in water, including snorkeling or scuba diving." Freediving is not covered — meaning it falls entirely outside the scope of regulation.
Legislator Chao Tien-lin noted that the Tourism Bureau is planning a legislative amendment to tackle this at the root by explicitly providing a legal definition for "freediving." The process has reached the public hearing stage, with discussions centred on how to distinguish between snorkeling and freediving. The legislator revealed that depth is being considered as the key distinguishing criterion — activities beyond a certain depth would be classified as freediving. He also advocates for the establishment of a dive guide system for freediving. The hope is to complete the amendments before the end of the year, allowing scuba diving, freediving, and snorkeling to each be regulated separately and in detail under the Regulations for the Management of Water Recreation Activities.
Chao Tien-lin's Journey into Diving: It All Started with an Invitation from Palau
Legislator Chao Tien-lin, who has been instrumental in advancing these regulatory reforms, is himself a novice diver! So what led him to take up diving? It all started with a warm invitation from Palau's President Surangel Whipps Jr. A passionate marathon runner, Chao had previously visited Palau for "marathon diplomacy," during which President Whipps invited him to come back and experience Palau's underwater world on a future visit. To honour that invitation — and to better understand Taiwan's oceans and the challenges facing the diving industry — Legislator Chao began learning to dive, bringing his eldest son along to explore the sea together.
What Chao Tien-lin Has Gained from Diving
After taking up diving, the legislator fell in love with the ocean. Photo source: 趙天麟 Facebook.
Descending just over ten metres into the sea, the marine life and ecosystems he encountered left Legislator Chao thoroughly awestruck. "This is a world I had never experienced before," he said. "It is filled with countless living things, and it made me feel that we truly need to approach the ocean with far greater humility."
"The greatest gain was my teenage son — he fell in love with diving. Ever since we got back, he keeps asking me, 'When are we going diving together? When can I start the advanced course?' It has really strengthened the bond between us." Chao laughed, adding that his son picked it up faster and moves far more gracefully underwater than he does.
Taking up diving not only gave him a new connection with his eldest son, but also added another tool to his diplomatic toolkit. "It also relates to my own region — our mayor is a mayor who loves diving (Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai). As his partner, in addition to conducting diplomacy together, I very much hope there will be an opportunity to go diving with him as well."
Learning from Palau's Approach to the Ocean
On a return visit to Palau earlier this year, Legislator Chao was again deeply impressed by the nation's ocean-embracing culture — including the fact that President Whipps requires every ambassador posted to Palau to learn to dive. "They are very confident. They see themselves as a maritime nation. 'Don't be afraid of the ocean' — that is something we need to learn from them."
Palau's marine ecosystems speak for themselves. photo credit: Neko Wang.
Manta rays are a regular sight here. photo credit: Neko Wang.
Legislator Chao was also struck by how thoroughly marine conservation is embedded in Palau. "The entire country — the operators, right down to the individual instructors — are all meticulous and conscientious about which activities are permitted in which waters." He observed that local dive operators and instructors in Palau effectively serve a dual role as both conservation officers and tourism ambassadors.
Reflecting on Palau's example and turning the lens back to Taiwan, Legislator Chao noted that Taiwan tends to fall into a "herd mentality." When activities like mermaid swimming or freediving became popular, there was initially a degree of economic benefit — but "people didn't really have a comprehensive sense of water conservation. It became a race to the bottom, with cut-throat price competition, casting a shadow over 'opening up the waters.' Paradoxically, it makes people question whether 'opening up' is even a good thing."
Taiwan is blessed with rich marine resources — all the more reason to cherish them. photo credit: 簡晨宇, photographed at Hejie, Kenting.
When it comes to the ocean, Legislator Chao summed up two principles: "First, don't fear it; second, don't plunder it." He advocates for a more holistic view of Taiwan's seas, saying: "We can start from diving — taking stock of what underwater resources exist in different parts of Taiwan — and work our way up to the broader picture of marine conservation. That includes making it part of public education: which waters are open to water recreation activities, and which are not. At the same time, we should survey our underwater ecological resources and use them to promote Taiwan to the world."
Drawing on the experience of reforming diving insurance and related regulations, Legislator Chao Tien-lin believes that this successful round of dialogue has given all parties an opportunity to rethink what the ocean means to the people of Taiwan.
"We are beginning to re-examine how our marine resources can be utilised, and how laws that fall short can catch up. That is the significance I see in this journey that started with 'diving.' Diving is a small thing; developing the culture of a maritime nation is a very big thing."
Through this interview, the BlueTrend editorial team came to appreciate just how much effort goes into advancing a single policy — with countless rounds of coordination between many different bodies happening behind the scenes. We look forward to seeing more legislators take an interest in the ocean industry and work together to make the relevant regulations ever more comprehensive.
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