A deficient coastal radar system and its high rate of disrepair have affected the Coast Guard Administration’s ability to deter smuggling and illegal fishing, a Control Yuan report said.
According to the report compiled by members of a Control Yuan committee, Liu Te-hsun (劉德勳) and Chen Hsiao-hung (陳小紅), the administration had installed a vessel traffic monitoring system from 2001 to 2003 to monitor all naval traffic within 12 nautical miles (22km) of the nation’s coastline.
The system is remotely operated and all information is uploaded to a command center for analysis, the administration said, adding that the system reduced the number of personnel needed to patrol the coast.
However, the report showed that the foreign manufacturer contracted to build the system halted production of related equipment in 2007 and the number of core components in the system that are malfunctioning have exceeded 51 percent, with no available components to swap out.
The debilitation of the system has affected the administration’s operational effectiveness, the report said, citing increases in illegal fishing, use of depth charges when fishing and electrocuting or poisoning fish across the nation as an example.
When the system was installed 15 years ago, the number of cases related to fish smuggling had been as high as 50 to 60 percent, the Control Yuan said, adding that in recent years it has dropped to about 20 percent.
The statistics are direct evidence that the dilapidated equipment is pulling the administration down instead of helping it, the report concluded.
In response, the administration said that it is planning to install several radar systems in ports and harbors to decrease the blind spots in radar coverage, adding that pending the results, it might increase the number of systems to improve the surveillance of fishing boat activities.
The report said that the administration is 10 percent below its full personnel capacity, calling on the Executive Yuan to allocate more personnel so the administrations duties are not hindered.
According to the 2014 National Audit Office budget report, the administration should have 2,643 personnel, but it only has 2,353.
The administration said it has asked for an increase of 509 people, but the Executive Yuan only approved an increase of 231.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS