Taiwan has received data from a yellowfin tuna that it tagged and released into the ocean last year as part of its study into the fish’s migration habits, a researcher said yesterday.
The tuna, one of 786 that were hatched and released by a local fisheries institute, was caught by Japanese fishermen on April 28 in the waters off Amami Islands, which are located between Okinawa and Kyushu, southern Japan.
The fishermen sent the tag from the fish to the Japan Fisheries Agency, which passed on the data to the Taiwan Coastal and Offshore Resources Research Center of the Fisheries Research Institute, the center’s director, Wu Lung-ching (吳龍靜), said.
The data, which is vital in the research of yellowfin’s movement in the waters around Taiwan and their migratory habits, showed that the tuna had traveled the longest distance ever recorded for yellowfins released from Taiwanese hatcheries, Wu said.
He said that each of the yellowfin tuna weighed around 2kg and were 35cm long when they were released on Oct. 25 in the waters southeast of Lamay Island, a coral islet that lies 15km west of Donggang (東港) in Pingtung County.
But surprisingly, the fish that was caught was still the same size after six months, he said.
The institute is trying to come up with an explanation for this bizarre finding, he said.
Wu said it was important to know the migratory path of yellowfins in the waters off southwestern Taiwan to promote conservation of the species.
Researchers are trying to determine whether yellowfin tuna swim from Penghu Islands off southwest Taiwan northward to Japan along the Taiwan Strait, or if they swim to the east coast of Taiwan then follow the Black Tide to Japan, Wu said.
The research could help the institute devise plans to prevent overfishing of yellowfin tuna in waters around Taiwan, he said.
The results of the research will be shared with the international community to develop integrated conservation of marine resources, he added.
Wu said about 1,000 tonnes of yellowfin are caught in Taiwan each year, accounting for a small percentage of the 800,000 tonnes taken worldwide annually.
Yellowfin tuna are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean.
They are also found in Canadian waters along the edge of the Gulf Stream and Georges Bank, the Scotian Shelf and the Grand Banks.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents