South Korean TV station Channel A on Friday published a statement clarifying an earlier report it made, which painted a negative picture of Taiwan’s tilapia industry.
On the Web site of the weekly program about food, the station clarified that the ponds shown in the broadcast on Oct. 25 in Taiwan that were covered in algae were not tilapia farms, as described in the report, but were in fact deserted.
The statement also said that the water quality of Taiwanese tilapia farms met international standards.
The clarification came after Taiwan’s representative office in South Korea filed a complaint about the report, which alleged that the farms were unsanitary and that there was an overuse of anesthetics in raising the fish.
The report angered Taiwan’s tilapia farmers, who feared it would hurt their business.
Tilapia is an important industry for Taiwan. Seventy thousand tonnes of the freshwater fish are produced, with 60 percent exported to the US, Canada, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.
Taiwanese officials and Channel A reached an initial agreement on the statement on Nov. 8, but did not agree on the exact wording before the broadcast of the program that day.
To correct the Channel A report, Taiwanese officials and the Taiwan Tilapia Alliance are to hold a press conference in Seoul on Nov. 20, according to Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture. The group is also scheduled to attend South Korea’s Busan International Seafood and Fisheries Expo on Nov. 21 and 22.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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