A bottlenose dolphin found stranded on a beach in Cigu Township (七股), Greater Tainan, two months ago has recovered from its injuries and will be put back in the sea today, the Forestry Bureau said.
In late April, the male dolphin was found on a beach with cuts and lacerations all over its body, and was immediately sent to the Taijiang Cetacean Rescue Center in Greater Tainan’s Sihcao (四草) area.
The bureau said it had called for emergency assistance from the center’s cetacean rescue team after it received the Coast Guard Administration’s report about the distressed animal. With the collaboration of National Cheng Kung University’s Marine Biology and Cetacean Research Center, the dolphin was put in the Taijiang center’s pool for treatment and recovery.
The dolphin was given the name “Shunzi” (順子), meaning “success,” in the hope that it would be set free “successfully and smoothly,” the bureau said.
According to the bureau, a significant proportion of its skin was covered in blisters and the animal was diagnosed with pnumothorax and diarrhea on the first day.
The dolphin’s debilitated condition was severe enough that it was unable to swim in balance.
Late last month, the center began adjusting its diet by reducing the proportion of food it was fed by humans and increasing the amount of live food for it to prey on.
After receiving platelet-rich plasma therapy and being cared by 446 volunteers in shifts for 1,333 hours during the past two months, the dolphin recovered from all its injuries and illnesses and is back at a normal weight, the bureau said.
The volunteers’ hard work was rewarded when they observed the dolphin interacting with a rescued green sea turtle in the pool — a sign it had recovered successfully.
Following a discussion between specialists and veterinarians on June 16, the team decided to install a satellite tracking device on the dolphin and release it back into the ocean today.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up