The Pingtung County Environmental Protection Bureau earlier this week launched an investigation of several tourists who last week allegedly harassed wild sea turtles when diving and uploaded a video of the incident to YouTube, sparking public outrage.
The five-minute video purportedly shot in waters near Pingtung’s Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球) drew widespread condemnation after it was reposted on a scuba diving community page on Facebook.
Netizens said the video is a virtual compilation of what divers should not do when interacting with marine wildlife.
The video shows the tourists fondling sea turtles on the head at least five times, and one tourist is seen grabbing a turtle by the shell to prevent it from escaping, the bureau said.
“This behavior is outrageous,” the bureau said.
The Eighth Division of the National Police Agency’s Seventh Special Police Corps has been asked to conduct a criminal investigation, because the actions depicted in the video contravened the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法), the bureau said.
Police were attempting to identify the culprits, who could receive a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$300,000 or less than one year in prison, it added.
Local dive instructors said that the sea turtles near the island are more friendly to humans, and tourists often interact with them inappropriately by trying to touch them.
The island’s dive shop operators try to prevent such incidents by instructing their clients to maintain their distance from wildlife and avoid physical contact, which has successfully reduced the number of incidents, they said.
“You do not see criminals film their crime and set it to music,” one netizen said.
“Some people need punishment to be kept in line,” another netizen said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS