The Ocean Conservation Administration (OCA) should do more to protect Taiwanese humpback dolphins, as pollution threatens the critically endangered species, New Power Party Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said on Thursday.
People should be aware not only of the cause of death of a dolphin found in Tainan’s Anping Harbor (安平港) on Monday, but the dangers that the marine animals face, National Taiwan University School of Veterinary Medicine associate professor Yang Wei-cheng (楊瑋誠) said.
More than 80 percent of the dolphins monitored for a study had scars indicating that they had been trapped or caught in netting or wiring, while 60 percent also had lesions, Yang said.
Photo: CNA
The agency is looking into the cause of the Tainan dolphin’s death, agency Deputy Director-General Wu Long-jing (吳龍靜) said, adding that any decrease in the dolphin population is a terrible loss.
The agency is stepping up conservation measures for Taiwanese Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins by analyzing the threats they face, increasing monitoring and research, protecting the animal’s habitat, mitigating human effects on their habitat and improving local conservation efforts, he said.
Last year, the OCA worked with the Fisheries Agency in a program to purchase old nets in hopes of decreasing the amount of netting or other fishing waste dumped into the sea, he said.
The OCA has also been monitoring water quality, Wu said, adding that the water quality around the dolphins’ habitat is satisfactory.
It is still considering whether to expand an area marked as an important habitat for dolphins, he said.
The OCA has stretched its review parameters as far north as New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) and as far south as Tainan, he said.
Its conservation plan is constantly changing based on its research, Wu said.
It has established a panel, which includes experts, to provide suggestions on how to improve dolphin conservation, he 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 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
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
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