Ecology and environmental conservation organizations yesterday urged the government to draw up measures within two weeks on ways to save the nation's Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins.
The dolphins are also known as "Matsu fish" (媽祖魚) because they generally appear along the west coast around the March birthday of the sea goddess. Easily recognizable by their light pink color, they like to gather close to the seashores and bayous in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean.
Staging a skit in front of the Executive Yuan yesterday, members of the Matsu Fish Protection Alliance urged the government to speed up efforts to save the humpbacked dolphins, of which there are fewer than 200 left near Taiwan, the group said.
Their habitat is gradually being destroyed by several government-approved development projects along the west coast, Ecology Academy General Secretary Chen Bing-heng (陳秉亨) said yesterday.
Chen said conservation experts from countries such as Canada, Japan and the US passed a resolution in an international conservation seminar in Taiwan in September establishing a consultancy group that offers assistance on Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins conservation.
Chen said that Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist at the Humane Society, announced in Washington on Tuesday the establishment of the Taiwan Sousa Working Group to support the cause.
Peter Ross, a marine mammal toxicologist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Institute of Ocean Sciences, is the chairman of the group's advisory team, Chen said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow