Kaohsiung’s Marine Wetlands Park in the city’s Linyuan District (林園) yesterday announced that upside-down jellyfish, once the main attraction of its coastal lagoons, have returned.
The upside-down jellyfish did not appear in the park’s lagoons between 2016 and last year because industrial waste was dumped into the lagoons, park officials said.
The wetlands park once had the only lagoon where up to 10,000 jellyfish would congregate, the park said, adding that many former school children undoubtedly have fond memories of their field trips to the area.
Photo: Hung Chen-hung, Taipei Times
However, industrial pollution drove away the jellyfish and caused a drastic drop in the number of visitors, the park said.
The Linyuan District Mangrove Conservation Society, which works with the park, is now taking reservations for group tours, society director-general Su Wen-hua (蘇文華) said.
“According to our observations, the number of jellyfish is at its lowest from June to August and slowly increases starting each September,” Su said.
January and February are the creatures’ breeding season and the best period for observing the jellyfish, Su added.
Outside the park, jellyfish have also been spotted in ditches in the district’s Gangpu (港埔) and Shanwei (汕尾) areas and there have been sightings of sea anemones, Su said.
This is due to pumps drawing in the jellyfish and sea anemones when local aquaculture farmers are piping in saltwater for their ponds, Su said.
A thicker layer of sediment at the bottom of the lagoons could be one of the reasons why the population of jellyfish cannot compare with its peak of 10,000, Su said.
The number of fish in the lagoons and the sediment kicked up when fish swim around is also not conducive to the growth of jellyfish, Su said.
His organization hopes to work with the park to create a suitable habitat for the jellyfish, Su said, adding that one method would be to artificially change the direction of the current to wash away the sediment.
The mangrove society and the park would also call for volunteers to regularly clean the algae off the lagoon’s surface to help photosynthesis inside the jellyfish, Su said.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
Taiwanese indie band Sunset Rollercoaster and South Korean outfit Hyukoh collectively received the most nominations at this year’s Golden Melody Awards, earning a total of seven nods from the jury on Wednesday. The bands collaborated on their 2024 album AAA, which received nominations for best band, best album producer, best album design and best vocal album recording. “Young Man,” a single from the album, earned nominations for song of the year and best music video, while another track, “Antenna,” also received a best music video nomination. Late Hong Kong-American singer Khalil Fong (方大同) was named the jury award winner for his 2024 album
Hong Kong singer Eason Chan’s (陳奕迅) concerts in Kaohsiung this weekend have been postponed after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 this morning, the organizer said today. Chan’s “FEAR and DREAMS” concert which was scheduled to be held in the coming three days at the Kaohsiung Arena would be rescheduled to May 29, 30 and 31, while the three shows scheduled over the next weekend, from May 23 to 25, would be held as usual, Universal Music said in a statement. Ticket holders can apply for a full refund or attend the postponed concerts with the same seating, the organizer said. Refund arrangements would
RSS