Peng Kuan-chieh (彭冠傑), who fell in love with sea turtles during a childhood visit to the Green Sea Turtle Museum in Penghu County’s Wangan Township (望安), has channeled his passion into making polymer clay models of the creatures, which are being used to encourage conservation efforts and to raise money.
“Seeing the turtles and their filmy eyes, they were so cute,” Peng on Friday said of his childhood visit.
He was also moved by watching a program on the Discovery Channel that detailed how sea turtles laid their eggs on beaches, he said.
Photo: CNA
He chose to study sea turtles for his master’s degree and is even serving his alternative military service on Pingtung’s Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球) to be closer to the reptiles.
Green sea turtles can often be seen hunting for food at high tide in the waters off Siaoliouciou, Peng said.
However, the animals can only be seen on Wangan’s beaches during the spawning season, he added.
Photo: CNA
The ban on gill nets in the region has led to frequent sightings of small to middle-sized sea turtles, Peng said.
After a hostel owner asked him for one of his models, Peng said it gave him the idea that he could put them to good use and decided to make a large number.
The Dapeng Bay National Scenic Park uses the models to raise money for sea turtle conservation, saying on their Facebook page that those who donate 10 receipts to the park can receive one for free.
All 35 models were snapped up within minutes of the offer being posted, Peng said.
Peng said he is to attend five beach cleaning events organized by the park this month and he would be offering five turtles to participants at each clean-up.
Participants would receive one coin for every 2kg of trash they pick up and they would be able to exchange the coins for models, Peng said.
He is also making 10 more models available for the park to exchange for 20 receipts, he said.
Peng said he hoped to be able be work on sea turtle conservation or a related field, but if he could not find paid work, he would continue to help out as a volunteer.
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final
EYE ON MAYORS: The DPP would file a complaint with the Control Yuan against Ko and Chiang over their handling of reports of abuse at a preschool in the city The Taipei City Government’s belated response under Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and his predecessor, Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), to alleged child sex abuse at a kindergarten resulted in more children being victimized, two Taipei City Councilors said yesterday. A Taipei preschool teacher has been charged with sexually abusing six children from 2021 to last year at a school registered to his mother. Prosecutors are reportedly considering additional charges amid a wave of new accusations allegedly linking the suspect to 20 other abused children and the discovery at his residence of more than 600 sexually explicit videos featuring minors. The