The upstream migration of hundreds of bighead carp in an artificial channel at Bitan Dam (碧潭堰) ahead of the laying season is a testament to the success of conservation efforts on the Sindian River (新店溪), New Taipei City Water Resources Department Director Sung Te-jen (宋德仁) said yesterday.
The department in 2015 constructed four short dams downstream of Bitan Dam to create a contiguous stretch of water to reconnect the ecological corridor that was severed during the construction of the main dam, Sung said.
The creation of the artificial channel at the dam furthered that goal, he said.
Photo: Wong Yu-huang, Taipei Times
The department recorded 63 fish species, as well as 10 shrimp and crab species, in the area from May 2022 to December last year, he said.
Rainfall levels last week and warmer temperatures have prompted fish to migrate upriver to procreate, and underwater camera footage showed a record number of fish in the artificial channel, the department said.
The public can observe the fish migration in person, it said.
Photo: Wong Yu-huang, Taipei Times
To prevent poaching, the department has contracted security personnel to patrol the channel at all times, it said, adding that a ban on fishing applies within 100m downstream of Bitan Dam.
National Tsing Hua University professor emeritus Tzeng Chyng-shyan (曾晴賢) said that the city government’s monitoring of the river’s ecology via the cameras has helped increase upstream fish migration.
A ban on activities in or near the river in the vicinity of the dam has provided a safe habitat for its fauna, Tzeng said.
In February the department recorded the upriver migration of sweetfish, it said, adding that it expects mitten crabs to be active next month.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS