Ecology and environmental conservation organizations yesterday urged the government to draw up measures within two weeks on ways to save the nation's Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins.
The dolphins are also known as "Matsu fish" (媽祖魚) because they generally appear along the west coast around the March birthday of the sea goddess. Easily recognizable by their light pink color, they like to gather close to the seashores and bayous in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean.
Staging a skit in front of the Executive Yuan yesterday, members of the Matsu Fish Protection Alliance urged the government to speed up efforts to save the humpbacked dolphins, of which there are fewer than 200 left near Taiwan, the group said.
Their habitat is gradually being destroyed by several government-approved development projects along the west coast, Ecology Academy General Secretary Chen Bing-heng (陳秉亨) said yesterday.
Chen said conservation experts from countries such as Canada, Japan and the US passed a resolution in an international conservation seminar in Taiwan in September establishing a consultancy group that offers assistance on Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins conservation.
Chen said that Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist at the Humane Society, announced in Washington on Tuesday the establishment of the Taiwan Sousa Working Group to support the cause.
Peter Ross, a marine mammal toxicologist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Institute of Ocean Sciences, is the chairman of the group's advisory team, Chen said.
A recently discovered supernova is the brightest and closest to Earth identified in the past decade, and can be observed with basic equipment, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said on Wednesday. The supernova has an absolute magnitude of 14.9 in luminosity and is in the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) about 21 million light-years from Earth. It was discovered early on May 20 by Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki, who immediately reported the finding to the International Astronomical Union, the museum said. The supernova was designated SN 2023ixf following the astronomical naming conventions for supernovas, it added. The museum said that it observed
Tropical storm Guchol is moving in a northeasterly direction off the east coast of the Philippines and will not hit Taiwan, but will impact local weather starting on Friday, the Central Weather Bureau said Thursday. The storm would bring a low-pressure system northward toward the vicinity of Taiwan, forecaster Chao Hung (趙竑) said. Northern Taiwan will see intermittent rain showers in the morning, and thunderstorms in the afternoon on Friday, he said, adding that rain would be heavier on the east coast and in the central-southern mountainous areas. Rainfall would continue into Saturday, and would spread throughout Taiwan proper, he
Exiled Chinese democracy advocate Wang Dan (王丹) yesterday denied an accusation by former Taiwanese political worker Lee Yuan-chun (李援軍) that Wang had sexually harassed him in a hotel room in New York nine years ago. There was a huge gap between Lee’s accusation and his own understanding and memory, Wang wrote on Facebook, adding it was hard for him to respond further regarding a “unilateral description” made by someone else. Wang made the remarks after his initial response on Facebook was met with criticism, with people saying he did not directly address the allegation. Lee on Friday wrote on Facebook that he
A man was arrested in Hsinchu on Saturday on suspicion of filming women in the women’s washroom of a shopping mall in the city, local Chinese-language media reported on Thursday. The man was arrested at around noon on Saturday when a woman using a stall in the mall’s washroom noticed a cellphone being held above her from the neighboring stall, reports said. The woman ran out of the washroom and yelled to her husband to help her, after which the suspect – who was dressed as a woman – attempted to flee, but was subdued by other men until police
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