Efforts to boost the population of Taiwan’s once critically endangered Formosan landlocked salmon have been a huge success, with numbers reaching a record in the past few years, a national park official said on Thursday.
The population of the indigenous salmon went from about 200 in 1995 to more than 15,000 in 2022, leading to a significant reduction in the extinction risk, Shei-Pa National Park Headquarters official Liao Lin-yan (廖林彥) said.
The endemic subspecies, a “glacial relict” left behind in Taiwan after the most recent ice age, is found only in water streams at elevations above 1,500m.
Photo: Chang Hsuan-tse, Taipei Times
Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) on Thursday morning visited the Formosan landlocked salmon gene bank at Shei-Pa National Park.
Liao showed Lu around, and she fed some of the salmon.
Waterless transport of zygotes to higher altitudes has been used in the work to revive the salmon population, Liao said.
Lu thanked the people involved for their efforts, adding that she reported on the program when she was a journalist.
The national park is planning to build a center where people can learn more about the work to revive the species, Liao said.
The species is estimated to number 15,374 in Taiwan, with large populations in Cijiawan Creek (七家灣溪) in Taichung’s Heping District (和平) and Hehuan Creek (合歡溪) in Nantou County’s Renai Township (仁愛), as well as smaller populations in Luoyewei Creek (羅葉尾溪), which flows near the Yilan County-Taichung border; Arikatsu Creek (有勝溪), which is a tributary of Luoyewei Creek; Nanhu Creek (南湖溪) in Heping; and Bilu Creek (畢祿溪) in Renai, a park survey conducted in 2022 showed.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
RSS