Eel farmers yesterday demanded that the Chinese-language China Times retract a recent story with an inflammatory headline or face legal action.
Fisheries agency officials who participated in a discussion with eel farmers' groups yesterday confirmed that the groups said they would sue the daily for a story published on Tuesday with the headline: "Fisheries agency warns: eels are poisonous," if a written retraction is not issued within three days.
In addition, eel farmers plan to stage a protest that will surround the China Times' head office if the paper refuses to back down, said Shih Sheng-lung (石聖龍), an official at the agency.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
Test results released by the Fisheries Agency under the Council of Agriculture (COA) on Monday showed that eight aquaculture farms around the island were using banned additives, including seven eel farms. However, agency officials point out that only a tiny minority of aquaculture farms sampled tested positive for banned additives, with 99.88 percent of samples passing the test.
"We have had both more and less serious test results in the past that have been announced on our Web site," said Shih Sheng-lung, an official at the agency, "but it was not until the recent report of tainted aquaculture that the press started paying attention."
Shih said that the level of enrofloxacin found in the tainted eels, from 2.59 to 9.68 parts per billion, was not considered a serious health risk and could have resulted from environmental contamination rather than deliberate usage on the part of the farmers.
"The problem is the China Times improperly overemphasized the isolated cases of violation," said James Sha (沙志一), deputy director-general of the fisheries agency. "If this ends up hurting eel farmers, we will do what we can to aid them."
Meanwhile, Sha and Shih said that the COA had not agreed to demands made by eel farmers that the COA take out advertisements explaining the issue.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on