The Penghu County Agriculture and Fisheries Bureau on Monday warned against unauthorized entry by boat into Siji Islet’s Blue Cave (西吉嶼藍洞), saying violators run the risk of high fines and imprisonment.
The Blue Cave in South Penghu Marine National Park, known by locals as the Kitchen Basket (tsao lung, 灶籠), is very popular with visitors, leading to a growing number of local fishermen running private boat tours, the bureau said.
The tours have led to numerous complaints about unsightly fishing vessels ruining the natural scenery, the bureau said.
Photo: Liu Yu-ching, Taipei Times
The protected status of the park means that entry by unauthorized vessels is illegal, with penalties of up to NT$20 million (US$662,910) in fines and a five-year prison term, the bureau said.
Boat tours also present a safety risk, the bureau said, citing boats getting into trouble while taking visitors to the cave last year.
The Coast Guard Administration began patrols of Siji Islet, Touchin Islet (頭巾) and Tiehchen Islet (鐵砧) after those reports, the bureau said.
Collapses of the basalt cliff walls in the cave area are also not uncommon, since they were formed naturally by erosion and have uneven surfaces, the bureau said, adding that visitors should avoid getting too close to the cliffs.
“The weather is getting warmer with the arrival of spring. We hope that fishing enthusiasts who love this season will work with us to protect the landscape and the natural environment,” the bureau said.
ACCESS DENIAL: Beijing would likely take formation in the Philippine Sea, outside Taipei’s missile range, while its forces on the east would be a deterrent to foreign aid China is increasingly likely to employ a strategy of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) around Taiwan, which would use three carrier groups, a report from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. When China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, is completed next year, China would have three carriers, which would likely be used to surround Taiwan and implement an A2/AD strategy, it said, adding that efforts to strengthen China’s two other carriers — the Liaoning and the Shandong — appear to corroborate this. In the quarterly report, the council cited declassified documents from the Ministry of National Defense that categorized China’s carriers as
Two German warships are awaiting orders from Berlin to determine whether they would be the first German naval vessels in decades to pass through the Taiwan Strait next month, at the risk of stoking tensions with Beijing, a German commander said. While the US and other nations, including Canada, have sent warships through the narrow strait in recent weeks, it would be the German navy’s first passage through the Strait since 2002. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, and says it has jurisdiction over the nearly 180km waterway that divides the two sides. Taiwan strongly objects to these claims, saying only its people
Former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley yesterday called for more international backing for Taiwan and a coordinated pushback against China’s claims over the nation. “The United States should elevate Taiwan on the world stage. You should no longer be silenced in global affairs,” Haley told an audience at the Ketagalan Forum, a Taipei conference focused on security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. She called for Taiwan to become a full member of the UN, even though it is being blocked by China from representation in international bodies. While the US does not formally recognize Taiwan, it is the nation's strongest
INCH BY INCH: Beijing has adopted a ‘salami slicing’ strategy to gradually erode the sovereignty of the Republic of China in the Taiwan Strait, an expert said A Chinese patrol and law enforcement operation in the Taiwan Strait could indirectly expand Beijing’s jurisdiction to the median line of the Strait in an attempt to eliminate jurisdictional gaps, Taiwanese experts said. The operation, jointly launched by the Chinese Ministry of Transport’s Fujian Maritime Safety Administration and its East China Sea Rescue Bureau, was conducted from Saturday to Sunday, after China’s three-and-a-half-month fishing moratorium concluded on Friday last week, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The operation — which Beijing said is designed to “enhance traffic management and emergency rescue capabilities in the Strait to ensure the safety of vessels, facilities