Dissections of turtles found stranded ashore showed that more than half had consumed plastic and other waste produced by humans, while most were found on the coasts of southern and eastern Taiwan, the Ocean Conservation Administration (OCA) said in a report on Friday.
Established in April last year as part of the Ocean Affairs Council, the OCA in April released the first of its quarterly reports on strandings of cetaceans and sea turtles.
Mass strandings of cetaceans have been reported around the globe this year, the agency said, citing reports that more than 260 dolphins have beached along the northern Gulf of Mexico since February.
Photo copied by Hung Ting-hung, Taipei Times
In the second quarter, the agency received reports of 71 stranded turtles — 24 more than the average reported in the same period for the previous three years, the report showed.
Green sea turtles remain the primary species found, with 65 rescued from April to June, it said.
The turtles were rescued mainly on beaches in Taitung County, Pingtung County, New Taipei City and outlying Penghu County, it said.
Veterinarians have performed autopsies on 48 turtles, among which 26 were found to have consumed plastic debris, polystyrene foam or metal, the OCA said.
It called on people to reduce use of disposable plastic products to prevent more marine animals from consuming them.
In the second quarter, the OCA received reports of 50 stranded whales and dolphins, 40 of which were found dead, it said.
The beached animals included 13 pygmy killer whales — some of which were stranded in a group on the coast in Kaohsiung in April — 10 finless porpoises, seven bottlenose dolphins and five Fraser’s dolphins, it said.
The stranded cetaceans were found mainly on beaches in Kaohsiung, Taitung County and outlying Lienchiang County, the OCA said.
A pilot whale found in Kaohsiung in April was deaf — which is more than likely why it became stranded — and despite 31 days of treatment, it died, possibly because its internal organs were inflamed, it said.
The rising number of stranded animals might be because of increased attention on marine conservation, so there needs to be long-term observations to determine whether there is an upward trend, the agency said.
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 road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
RSS