Volunteer divers on Saturday harpooned 10 Thai snakehead fish, as the nation seeks to eradicate the invasive species from Taitung City’s Huoshuei Lake (活水湖).
“Huoshuei Lake hosts many watersports events and is an important recreational space for residents,” Taitung Underwater Federation president Huang Tung-yi (黃東益) told a lakeside news conference.
“This event was organized to ensure that the lake’s waters remain safe for the public and indigenous fish,” he said.
Photo: Huang Ming-tang, Taipei Times
The Taitung County Government asked diving enthusiasts to help eradicate the species in the lake after visitors reported seeing clutches of eggs and schools of juvenile snakehead fish in waters near the shore, he said.
The observation suggests that the invasive fish are thriving, which means indigenous species and ornamental fish the county might want to introduce to the lake would be displaced, he said.
A large snakehead population is also a liability to public safety because adults of the species are fiercely protective of their young, he said, adding that several swimmers have been bitten after getting too close to fry.
Harpooning was chosen as the method for the cull because other, less discriminating methods could affect indigenous fish, federation rescue committee chairman Cheng Yu-hao (鄭又豪) said.
Low visibility from cloudy weather made spotting the fish difficult, and the divers had to search among the kelp using flashlights and shoot the fish with harpoon guns, he said.
“The fish often sensed the divers before the divers could see them, so the [culling] was very difficult,” he said, adding that the adult fish they caught in four hours of the exercise were 30cm to 50cm long.
Huoshuei Lake is part of the Beinan River (卑南溪) national wetland and members of the public must obtain permission from conservation authorities before visiting, Taitung County Agriculture Department Director Hsu Chia-hao (許家豪) said.
The lake also hosts the county’s triathlons, he said.
The lake’s waters originate from an aquifer and flow into the sea, which allows saltwater and freshwater fish to mingle, Hsu said, adding that fish living in the lake include roe-bearing mullets, snappers, eels and giant trevallies.
The county and environmental authorities are disturbed by increasing reports of invasive species in Huoshuei Lake, he said, adding officials would continue efforts to eradicate them.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS