Environmental protection groups protested against a dredging operation at Niaoyu Port (鳥嶼港) in Penghu County, saying the sand pulled from the harbor and piled on a clearing might be blown out to sea and damage coral reefs.
At least 35,000m3 of sand has been dredged up and deposited on the eastern part of Penghu Beach, in Niaoyu Park.
The sand deposit could harm local ecology, as terns nest on the beach in the summer, the groups said, adding that northeasterly monsoon winds in the winter could blow the sand back into the sea, which could cause an ecological disaster if the sand settles on coral reefs.
Photo provided by a reader
The area in question is a sandbank and not an intertidal zone, Penghu County Public Works Department Director Tsai Chi-hsien (蔡淇賢) said, adding that the department, along with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and the National Property Administration, decided that depositing the sand in the area would have minimal effects on local ecology.
Tsai said the sand deposit at Niaoyu Port might be caused by changes in local hydrology.
However, sources said that the local hydrology was not only changing at Niaoyu Port, adding that Jibei Islet (吉貝嶼) was also seeing a buildup of sand on its beaches after building breakwaters.
Artificial structures might be the primary cause of the hydrological changes, the sources said, adding that natural occurrences, such as typhoons, might also play a part.
The county government’s primary focus would be working toward the conservation of extant intertidal zones and ensuring the protection of marine ecology in the area, the sources said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS