The Farglory Ocean Park in Hualien has become the first in the country to hatch the ancient marine animal the nautilus, which is said to have an average survival rate of less than one in 1,000 after hatching.
The park said that because the incubation period of the nautilus is more than 365 days and there are still a number of unsolved mysteries about it, observers from the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, the National Dong Hwa University and Japan’s Toba Aquarium have been sent to the park to study the animal.
Farglory Ocean Park chief executive officer Wu Fang-rong (吳方榮) said the nautilus has long been a mystery and the first operational nuclear-powered submarine used by the US in the 1950s was also named the Nautilus.
Photo: Yu Tai-lang, Taipei Times
The submarine mimicked the way the nautilus floats and sinks in the water, he said, adding that while most shellfish or snails have asymmetrical, spiral shells and no chambered sections, the nautilus’ spiral shell is symmetrical and there is a small tube connecting the chambered sections, but it is a mystery how the animal evolved to have such a body structure.
The ideal environmental conditions for breeding the nautilus are still unknown, so success rates of breeding or hatching the species are still very low, he added.
Hong Kong’s Ocean Park had nautilus lay eggs in 2005, but failed to hatch them. So far, only Japan’s Toba Aquarium has succeeded in hatching the nautilus, in 1995. Upon learning of the Farglory Ocean Park’s recent success in hatching the animal after two years of efforts, the Toba Aquarium has expressed its desire to work with the park, Wu said.
Wu said the water quality, temperature, flow and density were carefully monitored at all times during the 365 days of incubation and the nautilus hatched on Dec. 21.
The nautiluses still have a high-risk of dying within the first hundred days after hatching and the survival rate of the animal is still less than one out of a thousand during the first six months after incubation, adding that it is still a mystery why most of them suddenly stop eating and die during this period.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
RSS