The Fisheries Agency yesterday announced a five-year project with National Taiwan Ocean University and Wildlife21 that seeks to attach satellite tags to 100 endangered whale sharks to expand research and promote conservation of the species.
In celebration of International Whale Shark Day on Aug. 30, which was postponed because of a typhoon, the agency held a press conference yesterday to make public the results of the nation’s whale shark conservation efforts in recent years.
The whale shark, nicknamed “big dumb shark” by fishermen in Taiwan because of its slow swimming speed and tame behavior, is a highly migratory species often found in the seas near Taiwan, the agency said.
The meat of a whale shark is tender and white, which has also gained it a nickname, “tofu shark,” among seafood consumers in Taiwan who have made them a part of local cuisine, the agency said.
Since the species has a low reproduction rate and takes a long period to mature, the number of whale sharks has greatly decreased.
In 2002, the whale shark was included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Appendix II, meaning “not yet threatened by extinction, but may become so unless trade in specimens of such species is subject to strict regulation.”
The Taiwanese government launched a reporting system in 2001, started regulating the total catch of whale sharks in 2002, reduced the catch number annually from 2005 and finally put a total ban on catching, selling, possessing, exporting and importing whale sharks, the agency said.
Fisheries Agency Director Sha Chih-yi (沙志一) said since the first tag was attached to a whale shark in 2002, a total of 353 whale sharks had been tagged, with 323 conventional tag attachments and 30 satellite tags transmitting data. Data collected from nine whale sharks has allowed researchers to learn more about their daily habits and movements, he said.
Chuang Shou-cheng (莊守正), an associate professor at the university’s Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries Science, said that in comparison to the five whale sharks that stumbled into set-nets annually, they have found about three times that number this year — evidence that the total ban has been helpful in preserving the species.
Whale shark catching is almost banned by every country in the west Pacific, except Japan, which still has no regulations, and China, he said.
He added that whale shark protection needs international cooperation, otherwise what is preserved in Taiwan would only become increased live stocks in other countries.
Other than satellite tagging to better understand the behavior of whale sharks, the agency said it also began a National Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks in 2006 to gather more information on sharks, promote conservation education and international collaboration, and to enact a policy of “catching the whole shark, with fins attached” to avoid wasting sea resources by only cutting off the shark fins to supply high-priced seafood.
Wildlife21 executive director Rebecca Lisson said Taiwan’s efforts, including the new satellite project and its policies, place it in a globally leading role for protecting whale sharks.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at