National Taiwan Ocean University is to discontinue an emergency care program for sea turtles this year, its Maritime Ecology and Conservation Lab said yesterday, citing a shortage of personnel and funds, as well as a general lack of respect from the Ocean Conservation Administration (OCA).
OCA Deputy Director Wu Long-ching (吳龍靜) said the agency respected the lab’s decision.
Local government departments would resume oversight of turtle care projects, Wu added.
Photo: CNA
The agency previously funded the university’s project directly, but the method proved “inappropriate,” Wu said, adding that it instead sought to implement a bidding mechanism for turtle care funding.
Wu encouraged local government departments to apply for funding, saying that it would ensure that the turtle care efforts continue.
Lab director Cheng I-jiunn (程一駿) said the primary reason for the discontinuation was funding issues.
Cheng, a professor at the Keelung-based university, previously said the lab would apply for continued funding of NT$1.6 million to NT$1.8 million (US$53,872 to US$60,606).
However, Cheng said the funding mechanism had been changed into a government project that accepts bids from external institutions.
Due to funding issues, the lab only employs one assistant, Cheng said, adding that it still owes NT$50,000 in wages to previous lab assistants.
Its debt totaled about NT$1 million, he said.
Cheng said the OCA did not respect the lab’s expertise.
“This lab was established to provide correct information, not imagined information that the OCA wishes it to provide,” Cheng said.
Cheng cited an incident during the Lunar New Year holiday last year in which a leatherback sea turtle was found entangled in a fishing net.
Although the turtle was still alive, “I knew it was beyond our help,” Cheng said, adding that he at the time decided that it should die in peace.
However, after the turtle died in a pool operated by the lab’s project, a volunteer from one of the animal protection groups that had helped it transport the turtle accused the lab of causing the turtle’s death, Cheng said.
University secretary-general Lin Cheng-ping (林正平) yesterday said the school would look into the funding issue and, if necessary, provide financial assistance.
The OCA said it has set aside funding for emergency sea turtle care and rescue programs, which were previously provided by the lab in northern Taiwan and the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology in southern Taiwan.
The OCA said it this year sought assistance from other groups after the lab stopped providing its services.
So far, the groups had carried out 13 missions that involved sea turtles being stranded, it said.
‘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
RSS