Peng Kuan-chieh (彭冠傑), who fell in love with sea turtles during a childhood visit to the Green Sea Turtle Museum in Penghu County’s Wangan Township (望安), has channeled his passion into making polymer clay models of the creatures, which are being used to encourage conservation efforts and to raise money.
“Seeing the turtles and their filmy eyes, they were so cute,” Peng on Friday said of his childhood visit.
He was also moved by watching a program on the Discovery Channel that detailed how sea turtles laid their eggs on beaches, he said.
Photo: CNA
He chose to study sea turtles for his master’s degree and is even serving his alternative military service on Pingtung’s Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球) to be closer to the reptiles.
Green sea turtles can often be seen hunting for food at high tide in the waters off Siaoliouciou, Peng said.
However, the animals can only be seen on Wangan’s beaches during the spawning season, he added.
Photo: CNA
The ban on gill nets in the region has led to frequent sightings of small to middle-sized sea turtles, Peng said.
After a hostel owner asked him for one of his models, Peng said it gave him the idea that he could put them to good use and decided to make a large number.
The Dapeng Bay National Scenic Park uses the models to raise money for sea turtle conservation, saying on their Facebook page that those who donate 10 receipts to the park can receive one for free.
All 35 models were snapped up within minutes of the offer being posted, Peng said.
Peng said he is to attend five beach cleaning events organized by the park this month and he would be offering five turtles to participants at each clean-up.
Participants would receive one coin for every 2kg of trash they pick up and they would be able to exchange the coins for models, Peng said.
He is also making 10 more models available for the park to exchange for 20 receipts, he said.
Peng said he hoped to be able be work on sea turtle conservation or a related field, but if he could not find paid work, he would continue to help out as a volunteer.
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
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS