Greenpeace Taipei used a hot-air balloon to draw attention to marine conservation yesterday, in advance of a Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meeting.
“The hot-air balloon is here to tell people of the urgent need for changes in the way we manage Pacific fisheries at this year’s meeting in Guam,” said Yen Ning (顏寧), the group’s oceans campaigner.
Although the environmental -activist group was not able to release the balloon because of strong winds, the event still drew a lot of attention.
Photo: EPA
Yen accused the government of a lukewarm response to appeals from environmental groups for a more aggressive approach toward oceans conservation. Since Taiwan has one of the world’s largest and least regulated fishing fleets, she said, it should be held responsible for protecting the Pacific Commons, which are being overfished.
Yen also urged the Fisheries Agency to support the closing off of other ocean areas and the establishment of conservation zones to protect endangered fish species.
To build up awareness ahead of the meeting, she added, the organization’s ship, MV Esperanza, will arrive in Kaohsiung Harbor on March 23, three days before the talks begin.
Fisheries Agency Deputy -Director-General Tsay Tzu-yaw (蔡日耀) said on Friday that the agency was fully aware of the need for sustainable fishing and was prepared to discuss the issue with member countries “if the issue was brought up at the meeting.”
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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