Nearly 400 years after the Dutch first sailed around Taiwan, a team of explorers announced yesterday their plan to circumnavigate the island starting from next Monday.
The Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation (KOEF), a private organization dedicated to preserving Taiwan's oceanic environments and protecting the island's dolphins and whales, will be tackling the project.
The journey, dubbed "Formosa: Saluting the Coast," will take about a month to complete, the KOEF said in a press conference.
"People may ask why we are carrying out such a voyage," said Liao Hung-chi (廖鴻基), KOEF's counselor and initiator of the project. "The purpose of this journey is to discover the island's oceanic culture."
During the voyage, the team will be collecting information about coastal ecology, oceanic arts and history, fishery and coastal scenes.
The findings of the voyage will be published in a book, A Coastal Voyage around Taiwan, KOEF said.
"Coastal voyages are the best way to connect an island with the sea. However, most Taiwanese lack knowledge about the island's coasts and experiences with the ocean," KOEF said.
Liao, author of the book Whales' Lives, said Taiwanese, though living on an island, are alienated from the ocean.
"Taiwanese even fear the ocean. This is unreasonable," Liao said.
Liao said he hoped through this voyage and the team's accounts of the island's coasts, people will feel more attached to to the sea.
"I hope people can become as familiar with the island's ports as they are are with bus stops and MRT stations," Liao said.
The ship will be traveling no more than a nautical mile from the coast throughout the journey so the team can observe Taiwan from the sea, Liao said.
KOEF's budget for the voyage is around NT$1.3 million.
The exploratory team, consisting of 10 members, plan to set off on their journey from Hualien Harbor. Their ship Turumoan will sail northwards past every coastal county and city in Taiwan.
Turumoan is due to stop in at least one harbor in every coastal city to meet with local fishermen and residents whose works are related to the sea.
The members of the team include a captain, crew, writers, artists and whale experts.
Lo Chung-hsiung (
"I have been living on the sea for more than 40 years. The time I have spent on the sea is probably longer than my time on the land. The ocean is my good friend. I am so happy that I can do something for the ocean now," Lo said.
The writers will be responsible for recording events on Turumoan while the artists will be sketching scenes they see along the journey.
A musician will also be accompanying the team to record sounds made by dolphins, whales or other marine life on the voyage.
KOEF was founded by a group of whale specialists who discovered a number of species of whales and dolphins in the sea near Hualien in 1996.
Lin Chen-li (林振利), owner of Turumoan and a major sponsor of the voyage, said over the past few years, people's interest in whales and dolphins has increased.
"In 1998 only two whale-watching ships were available," Lin said.
"However, last year, the number of whale-watching ships has increased to 22 with more than 200,000 tourists joining the trips," Lin said.
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