Animal rights advocates on Thursday called on the government to consider the needs of land crabs before planning construction projects or maintenance work, as crabs in Kenting National Park (墾丁國家公園) are often at risk when they cross Provincial Highway 26 to lay eggs in the ocean.
New Power Party Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) held a news conference to warn about the issue as the land crab breeding season approaches.
“Ecological assessment has been taken more seriously than before for road and river improvement projects, but still has room for improvement,” Chen said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
For instance, a road construction project led by the Directorate-General of Highways Third Maintenance Office this year blocked the crabs’ migration route, she said.
Former Taiwan Environmental Protection Union Pingtung office director Hung Hui-hsiang (洪輝祥) said that Kenting is the habitat of most species of land crabs, but it has been ruined by the highway.
Studies conducted by Liu Hung-chang (劉烘昌), a Taiwanese land crab specialist, showed that between October 2018 and October 2019, 3,210 land crabs died on the 4km section between Banana Bay (香蕉灣) and Shadao (砂島). Forty-five percent of those killed were female crabs carrying eggs.
Hung said that the retaining walls and gutters along the highway, the highest rising 4m, built by the Directorate-General of Highways were “ridiculous” since they were short and easily crossed by the crabs.
Environmental groups are hoping the Banana Bay and the Gangkou River (港口溪) estuary sections of the highway can be elevated to create ecological corridors for the crabs, Taiwan Animal Protection Monitor Network secretary-general Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) said, adding that it would not be too expensive.
However, elevating the highway would only have limited effect, as local residents still need to use the road daily, Liu said.
Even the ecological corridors built for the famous red crabs on Christmas Island, an Australian territory northwest of the main continent, have failed, Liu said, suggesting that trial corridors should be built first to explore the feasibility of the project.
The Soil and Water Conservation Bureau is looking to lower or tear down the retaining walls along the Banana Bay section or replace them with temporary installations, Kenting National Park land crab researcher Li Jheng-jhang (李政璋) said.
Directorate-General of Highways deputy head engineer Chen Chin-fa (陳進發) said that it would task the Third Maintenance Office to improve the walls and gutters, and ask the office to undertake a thorough assessment along ecologically sensitive sections prior to construction.
The agency presently has no plans to elevate sections of the highway as a consensus has yet to be reached on the issue, he said, but promised to build a trial corridor this year.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and