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.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS