Measures to secure Siaoliouciou Island’s (小琉球) status as a tourist hotspot for the sea turtles that frequent the island are being planned, the Ocean Affairs Council said.
The agency’s Ocean Conservation Administration said that an average of 637 sea turtles were recorded per month last year on the island off Pingtung County, with November the top month with 981 photographed in one session.
The Ocean Conservation Administration said it conducts an aerial photography assessment that lasts 90 minutes each month using an uncrewed arrival vehicle.
Photo: Taipei Times
Agency staff manually count the turtles that the drone photographs, it said.
The agency this year placed its first satellite tracker on a celonia mydas, commonly known as green sea turtles, shortly after the animal hatched, it said.
The tracking program, conducted in tandem with the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, and the Taiwan Loo-Koo Yu Association, would help groups study the turtles, including their egg-laying schedule, migratory routes, habitats and feeding grounds, the Ocean Conservation Administration said.
Taiwan Loo-Koo Yu Association president Chang Hsin-yi (張欣怡) said that the group is dedicated to removing trash on beaches so that green sea turtles can lay eggs at their customary time from May to October.
However, summer brings a lot of visitors to the island, so the association has promoted rules such as restrictions on white-light sources, camping and fireworks to minimize impacts on green sea turtles that are about to lay eggs, Chang said.
The Pingtung County Government has listed five intertidal zones as Natural and Cultural Ecology Scenic Areas, including the Shanfu (杉福), Yuchengwei (漁埕尾) and Duzaiping (肚仔坪) sites, which have been designated conservation pilot zones.
The three pilot zones have limits on the number of people allowed in at a time, and since July 1 have charged a NT$60 conservation fee per person, it said.
The fees go into a special account to fund efforts to conserve and restore ecological resources, with the goal to allow tourism while maintaining sustainable development, it said.
Siaoliouciou Natural and Cultural Ecology Tourism Association director-general Chen Wen-yu (陳文玉) said that his association has been in the conservation movement for more than a decade and has seen the local extinction of species due to overcrowding.
However, crowd-control policies have resulted in some species, such as the cushion starfish and the blue sea star, making a return, Chen said.
An ecotour guide surnamed Hung (洪) said that green sea turtles sightings have increased over the past eight years, adding that they have also seen hatchings.
The local flora and fauna are invaluable resources, and residents and visitors must safeguard and conserve them, Hung said.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS