The lone crew member left aboard a Pingtung-based fishing boat that reportedly suffered a mutiny near the Solomon Islands early this month finally made contact with the vessel's owner on Tuesday and asked for help, sources from the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday.
Chen Tien-po (
Chen said he was tied down in the cabin as the Indonesian crew mutinied.
On Tuesday, he said, when the vessel was sailing in Indonesian waters near Java, it encountered a passing Indonesian fishing boat and all the Indonesians working aboard the Shun Cheng Yu abandoned the vessel and fled.
After the Indonesian crew members fled, Chen said, he freed himself and contacted his boss in Tungkang, telling him that he was the only person left on board and that fuel was running low, according to the CGA authorities, who also talked to Chen via satellite phone on Tuesday.
CGA authorities said they dispatched a patrol boat to the west Pacific Ocean last week after being informed that the Shun Cheng Yu might have been hijacked by its crew. The patrol boat reached the area where the Tungkang-based fishing boat was thought to have been on May 20, but it did not spot the vessel.
CGA officers said the case is being handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will negotiate with Indonesian authorities over the matter.
Meanwhile, the CGA has contacted Interpol for assistance in apprehending the 14 Indonesians.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
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