Hermit crabs on the beaches of Kenting (墾丁) are once again able to make their homes in real shells instead of using garbage, thanks to a campaign called “Seeking Homes for Crabs,” according to a report by cable news station FTV yesterday.
Hermit crabs — which do not produce their own shells and instead use empty shells for protection — have been harmed by the nation’s deteriorating marine and seaside environment, especially in the resort areas at the nation’s southern tip.
Hermit crabs have been found in Kenting National Park using garbage dumped by people, such as fireworks tubes and the outer cases of transformers for fluorescent lamps, as their homes.
Feeling sorry for the crabs, Kenting Youth Activity Center staffers launched a campaign in April to collect seashells for the “homeless” hermit crab.
The center has more than 1,000 seashells of all types and sizes that people had collected, FTV said.
The seashells have been placed in a cordoned off area near the beach along with rice bran to lure the hermit crabs to the shells in the hope that they will decide to “move house.”
As of Thursday, 26 crabs had successfully changed homes, leaving the garbage and moving into real seashells.
“It’s thrilling to see hermit crabs discard their garbage shells and move into real seashells. It feels like the crabs are moving into luxury apartments,” a worker with the center said.
The worker also urged people to stop littering and refrain from taking seashells off the beaches.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai