A Taitung-based doctor on Saturday warned people not to touch unknown marine life after reported sightings of Portuguese man-of-war carcasses on rocks near Wushihbi Fishing Harbor (烏石鼻) and on the beach at Shanyuan Bay (杉原灣).
An inspection of the carcasses revealed that they were Portuguese man-of-wars — the third-most venomous jellyfish in the world, said Liao Yi-sheng (廖益聖), deputy superintendent of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Taitung Hospital.
The jellyfish’s breeding season occurs in late spring or early summer every year, he said, adding that the large number of jellyfish sightings this month is unusual.
For this type of jellyfish, even the carcasses are venomous, Liao said, adding that cnidocytes might get stuck to the skin if stung.
Using bare hands to remove the cnidocytes would cause other body parts to also become infected with toxic proteins, Liao added.
The best method is to use clothing to remove the cnidocytes underwater to minimize the damage, Liao said, adding that people should seek medical help as soon as they discover that they have been stung.
“Do not use folk remedies such as applying urine to the wound, which might instead cause other infections or allergic reactions,” he said.
People with minor jellyfish stings experience redness, swelling and a stinging pain, while some might have an allergic reaction with extreme symptoms, Liao said.
Worse stings could cause difficulty breathing, muscle spasms or even shock, Liao said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
RSS