To raise awareness about marine conservation, Chunghwa Post has teamed up with the Republic of Palau Postal Service and plans to release two stamps featuring the blacktip reef shark and the green sea turtle tomorrow.
The souvenir stamp sheet is to have as its background a view of Palau’s islands and the sea floor off the coast of Taiwan.
A ceremony is to be held at 10am at the Postal Museum in Taipei to mark the launch of the stamps.
Photo courtesy of Chunghwa Post
The blacktip reef shark, or Carcharhinus melanopterus, is small to average in size, spindle-shaped and mainly found near coastlines in the Indian and Pacific oceans, Chunghwa Post said in a description on its Web site.
“It can be seen in the waters off both Taiwan and Palau,” the company added.
It has been designated as a near-threatened species by the Switzerland-based International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), it said.
The green sea turtle, or Chelonia mydas, is average to large in size compared with other sea turtles, the company said.
Its diet consists of seaweed and sea grasses, which give the turtle its green appearance, the company said.
Green sea turtles can be found in tropical and subtropical coastal waters, it said, adding that a refuge for green sea turtles has been established on Penghu County’s Wang-an Island (望安島).
The green sea turtle has been named an endangered species by the IUCN and the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法), it said.
The stamp featuring the blacktip reef shark has a face value of NT$13, while the stamp with the green sea turtle has a face value of NT$28.
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