The removal of a check dam from the Shei-pa National Park in 2011 has led to a dramatic increase in the population of the critically endangered Formosan landlocked salmon, a professor said yesterday.
The number of salmon has grown from fewer than 500 in 2001 to 5,400 this year, said National Chung Hsing University professor Lin Hsing-juh (林幸助), who started a 10-year project in 2004 with 20 other academics to monitor and research the fish.
The 15m by 3m Check Dam No. 1 of the Chichiawan Creek, one of 10 built on the river to reduce channel erosion and prevent sediment from filling a downstream reservoir, was torn down in May 2011.
The research team found that the dam left the fish vulnerable to big storms. When the creek was hit by a typhoon or flooding, the salmon would be flushed from their natural habitat in the creek’s upper reaches to points downstream, Lin said.
The cold-water fish would try to migrate upstream, but were prevented by the dam, leaving them to die in the warmer water of the creek’s lower reaches, Lin said.
During each major storm, one-third of the Formosan landlocked salmon in the region perished, he said.
The current salmon population has nearly reached the creek’s maximum capacity of 5,800 salmon, Lin said, but he added that the species is threatened by pollution caused by the production of high-mountain vegetables, fruit and tea grown nearby on Wuling Farm (武陵農場).
Nitrates in the fertilizers found in washed off soil pollute the creek and prevent the salmon from breathing, he said.
The species, a holdover from the last Ice Age, needs unpolluted waters to survive and is now found only in the country’s Cijiawan Creek (七家灣溪) and Gaoshan Creek (高山溪) in the upper reaches of the Dajia River (大甲溪).
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
RSS