The removal of a check dam from the Shei-pa National Park in 2011 has led to a dramatic increase in the population of the critically endangered Formosan landlocked salmon, a professor said yesterday.
The number of salmon has grown from fewer than 500 in 2001 to 5,400 this year, said National Chung Hsing University professor Lin Hsing-juh (林幸助), who started a 10-year project in 2004 with 20 other academics to monitor and research the fish.
The 15m by 3m Check Dam No. 1 of the Chichiawan Creek, one of 10 built on the river to reduce channel erosion and prevent sediment from filling a downstream reservoir, was torn down in May 2011.
The research team found that the dam left the fish vulnerable to big storms. When the creek was hit by a typhoon or flooding, the salmon would be flushed from their natural habitat in the creek’s upper reaches to points downstream, Lin said.
The cold-water fish would try to migrate upstream, but were prevented by the dam, leaving them to die in the warmer water of the creek’s lower reaches, Lin said.
During each major storm, one-third of the Formosan landlocked salmon in the region perished, he said.
The current salmon population has nearly reached the creek’s maximum capacity of 5,800 salmon, Lin said, but he added that the species is threatened by pollution caused by the production of high-mountain vegetables, fruit and tea grown nearby on Wuling Farm (武陵農場).
Nitrates in the fertilizers found in washed off soil pollute the creek and prevent the salmon from breathing, he said.
The species, a holdover from the last Ice Age, needs unpolluted waters to survive and is now found only in the country’s Cijiawan Creek (七家灣溪) and Gaoshan Creek (高山溪) in the upper reaches of the Dajia River (大甲溪).
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS