About 19 tonnes of garbage was collected yesterday by 507 divers in a nationwide ocean cleanup initiated by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA).
As of 6pm, about 19 tonnes of trash had been collected from the seabed, not including New Taipei City and Lienchiang County, as they had started later, EPA Department of Water Quality Protection Director Yeh Chun-hung (葉俊宏) said.
Keelung’s Chaojing Park (潮境公園) was the main venue for the event, where EPA Minister Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) spoke to participants nationwide via live-streamed video.
Photo courtesy of the Keelung City Government
Chiayi County Commissioner Helen Chang (張花冠) told Lee they had even found an iPhone 5 and an electric steamer in the ocean.
More than 120 volunteers rushed to register for the event as soon as the city government announced it, Keelung Department of Economic Affairs Marine Affairs division chief Tsai Fu-ning (蔡馥嚀) said.
Chaojing Park was used as a landfill before it became a park in 2002, Tsai said, adding that the city government last year designated the intertidal waters off the park as a conservation bay, where fishing and harvesting seaweed are forbidden.
One of the divers, Lin Yo-ping (林佑平), said he and fellow members of his diving society have been volunteering to clean seabeds nationwide since 2014.
Despite the many fishing nets discarded in the area, the diving society has begun to see more fish, dolphins and sea turtles in the conservation bay, he said.
Lin said he has become increasingly optimistic about the nation’s oceanic environment, but added that the real problem is garbage on land, not in the sea.
“Reducing the volume of trash is the key to solving the problem,” he said.
The EPA is tightening its restrictions on plastic bags, with nearly 100,000 additional stores saying they will not provide free plastic bags starting next year, Lee said, adding he hopes the nation will become plastic-free one day.
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Two executives of drone supplier Jiin Ming Industry Co (錦明實業) have been detained and held incommunicado over the company's alleged use of prohibited China-made chips and camera lenses in drones supplied under recent military contracts, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors' Office said today. In a statement, prosecutors said they raided the offices of Jiin Ming — headquartered in Taoyuan — as well as those of its subsidiaries and its suppliers on Thursday last week. The raids followed a report that the company had breached its procurement contracts by putting the prohibited components into drones delivered to the military. During the raids, prosecutors summoned
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) today said that two of its patrol vessels have docked at Palau's Malakal Harbor as part of an expedition exercise and diplomatic visit, during which a senior official is expected to meet with the Palauan president. The two vessels, the 4,000-tonne-class Chiayi (嘉義) and the 1,000-tonne-class Penghu (澎湖), set sail for Palau from Taiwan last week and arrived at Malakal Harbor yesterday, the CGA's Fleet Branch said in a statement. The journey marked the second time the CGA has dispatched a "Friendship Fleet" to another country, after it sent its first-ever goodwill fleet, comprising the Hualien (花蓮)
DETAILED PLAN NEEDED: Relocating the airport would affect not just travelers, but also undermine national defense and emergency medical services, a legislator said Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday proposed relocating Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) and turning the site into an artificial intelligence (AI) park, drawing opposition from politicians across party lines. Chiang’s plan would turn the 300 hectares into an AI park featuring tech clusters, residential communities and green space. The industrial cluster would host 200 domestic enterprises, generate NT$12 trillion (US$376.47 billion) in output, and accommodate 65,000 jobs and 35,000 residents, he said. Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said the Executive Yuan was surprised by the announcement, as the Taipei City Government did not discuss the proposal with the central government before making
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