Much to the delight of local preservationists, efforts to establish a second natural breeding ground for the endangered Formosan landlocked salmon have met success, Shei-Pa National Park Administration said.
Liao Lin-yen (廖林彥), director of the park’s Wuling Formosan Landlocked Salmon Conservation Center, said that after it released 250 Formosan landlocked salmon bred in captivity into the Luoyewei Stream (羅葉尾溪) and Sijielan Stream (司界蘭溪) last June, 28 salmon had been spawned.
SPAWNING GROUNDS
“We have found eight spawning grounds along the Luoyewei Stream and four spawning grounds in the Sijielan Stream,” he said. “A total of 28 fish have so far been spawned.”
The discovery indicates that captive-bred rare salmon can naturally breed after being released into the wild, Liao said, adding that the center has spent about 17 years to achieve this goal.
Encouraged by the results, Liao said, the park administration is scheduled to release up to 1,000 salmon parr in both streams on May 22 in hopes of establishing them as a second natural habitat for the Formosan landlocked salmon — a holdover from the last Ice Age and considered one of Taiwan’s national treasures — within five years.
TRADITIONAL HABITAT
Work by the conservation center has also boosted the number of Formosan landlocked salmon in the Cijiawan Creek (七家灣溪) — its traditional habitat — from slightly more than 200 in 1995 to more than 4,000 now.
The conservation center has not released captive-bred salmon parr in the river since 2006 and has instead launched a “take young salmon home” program, Liao said.
Under the project, Liao said, the center set up a “species bank” for the Formosan landlocked salmon and began releasing salmon fry into streams where the species had been found in the past.
DIFFICULTIES
Initially, the program achieved little success, Liao said.
The center released 1,500 salmon parr into three streams near the Cijiawan Creek four years ago, but most of them were washed away during typhoons before they could spawn.
A field survey found that larger volumes of water brought by typhoons as a result of global warming were having a negative impact on the species’ breeding, Liao said.
“We then decided to release salmon parr into other branches of the creek that are linked to deeper ponds and have more stable water flow,” Liao said, adding that this new approach had paid off.
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS