A university yesterday said it had developed energy-saving LED lamps that could cut costs for fishermen who use bright lights on their boats to attract fish.
“LED lamps can help reduce overall fuel consumption on fishing boats by between 15 and 20 percent,” National Cheng Kung University professor Shen Sheng-chih (沈聖智), who helped develop the device, said at a press conference.
The LED lamps use less than 10 percent of the power required by traditional fishing lamps, allowing more energy to be diverted to freezers to ensure catches remain fresh, Shen said.
Many fishermen turn off their freezers to save power while running traditional lamps, he said.
Shen and Fang Ming-chung (方銘川), both professors from the university’s Department of Systems and Naval Mechatronic Engineering, developed the lamp over a five year period with NT$20 million (US$669,000) in funding from the Council of Agriculture.
The lamp was also designed to project patterns of light on the surface of the ocean to attract fish, Shen said, adding that the LED lamp is the first device in the world to be designed with this function.
Shen said the lamp’s unique light patterns entice fish to remain longer in lit areas, adding that the LED lamp would dispel the myth that the brighter the light, the better the catch.
The professor added that the LED lamp is safer for fishermen, who are often exposed to hazardous ultraviolet rays emitted by traditional fishing lamps.
Over the past three years, the LED lamp has been used in test runs on a number of Taiwanese fishing vessels and test results have shown that fuel costs can be cut by about NT$300,000 a year for offshore vessels and by more than NT$2 million per four-month voyage for open-ocean vessels, Shen said.
If all fishing vessels in the country used the LED lamp, fishermen could save a total of between NT$600 million and NT$700 million in fuel costs each year, the study found.
Shen added that the LED lamp can easily be switched on and off, “unlike traditional lamps, which cannot be turned on for up to 20 minutes after being switched off.”
He said that this function allows fishermen to have better control over when they catch fish.
The results of the study have been given to two local manufacturers and Japanese companies have also expressed interest in the technology, as similar lamps in Japan may be 10 times more expensive, Fang said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to