Environmentalists from Taiwan and China met on the outlying island of Kinmen yesterday to discuss emergency preparedness for oil spills, as marine pollution emerges as a major issue following since the launch of direct shipping links across the Taiwan Strait.
The environmental seminar, held at the National Kinmen Institute of Technology, discussed response strategies for possible oil spill emergencies in the Taiwan Strait, one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
Speaking at the opening session, Fu Kun-cheng (傅崑成), director of the university’s Ocean Affairs Research Center, said that ships plying the Taiwan Strait travel in a north-south direction and that the number of vessels on the route has increased steadily since the opening of direct cross-strait shipping links.
“Against this backdrop, the probability of marine accidents has increased and we are holding this seminar as the first step toward cross-strait cooperation in the field of environmental protection,” Fu said.
He said the seminar should spur the establishment of a cross-strait cooperative mechanism for oil-spill prevention and emergency response mechanisms.
Chen Hsien-heng (陳咸亨), director of the Environmental Protection Administration’s Water Quality Protection Bureau, said that five vessels were grounded in waters off Taiwan’s southwestern coast during Typhoon Morakot in early August.
“Fortunately, there were no serious oil spills from those ships, but this should serve as a warning. With an average of 1,000 ships now plying the Taiwan Strait each day, we should be better prepared to tackle oil spills and other emergencies,” Chen said.
The two-day seminar has brought together some 120 marine pollution experts and academics from Taiwan and China to exchange views and experiences in addressing oil spill issues.
The 40-member Chinese delegation is headed by Li Yi (李義), deputy chairman of the ship pollution commission under the Chinese Institute of Navigation.
Seventeen papers on oil slick legislation on both sides, notable oil spills, emergency response strategies and technologies, and possible cross-strait cooperation on oil spill response will be presented and discussed at the symposium.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS