An observation buoy has been deployed off the shores of Lienchiang County to gather data that would help track the presence and strength of cold currents in the Taiwan Strait and their potential impact on fish populations there.
The county’s waters play a significant role as an entry point into the Taiwan Strait to the south for low-temperature, low-salinity coastal currents from China from November to March or April, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) said in a statement on Monday last week.
The buoy has been deployed off the island of Nangan — the largest island in the county — to monitor real-time meteorological data and provide continuous observations of water temperature, salinity and wave measurements, it said.
Council researcher Kuo Chun-chih (郭俊志) said in a telephone interview on Tuesday last week that the Central Weather Bureau already has a notification system in place that sends fishers in the area warnings of abnormal conditions and that the new data buoy would focus more on long-term observation.
It would provide long-term data for scientific research while helping fishers be better prepared to understand where fish stocks might be, and can ultimately help Taiwan’s marine ecology agencies and fisheries proactively address climate change risk.
Northern China has suffered from extreme cold weather in recent years, which has had an effect on the currents originating along China’s coast that feed into the Taiwan Strait, Kuo said.
Situated in the northwestern corner of the Taiwan Strait, Lienchiang County is also close to the mouth of the Min River in China’s Fujian Province and ideally positioned to monitor those currents.
The new data buoy would provide a picture of how serious an impact these cold currents have and how they affect fish migration, which would provide clues over the long term on where fish might go when faced with cold currents, Kuo said.
Marine sustainability involves many stakeholders, highlighting the need for reliable data, critical information and interdisciplinary analysis to inform decisions concerning the future of the world’s oceans, NSTC Deputy Minister Lin Minn-tsong (林敏聰) said.
Beyond monitoring changes in water conditions, the buoy’s data would contribute to exploring global ocean warming trends, as well as tracking the impact of environmental changes on Taiwan’s important fishing grounds, he said.
The deployment of this buoy is just the beginning, as the council plans to establish a network of long-term observation buoys in six key areas, including the western Pacific Ocean, waters off northeastern Taiwan and Nangan Island, the statement said.
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