An Yilan County fisherman who caught a Rumphius’ slit shell, a rare deep-water sea snail, said that he released it back into the wild on Tuesday in accordance with the wishes of a man who purchased it for NT$120,000.
After finding the conical, 20cm-by-15cm mollusk while trawling near Turtle Island (Gueishan Island, 龜山島) on Saturday last week, Lin Tien-ming (林天明), a resident of Toucheng Township (頭城), listed the catch for sale online.
As news of the catch spread, National Taiwan Museum wrote on social media that such rare sea snails should be “returned to nature” if caught and should not be treated as collector’s items.
Photo courtesy of Lin Tien-ming
Lin rejected the suggestion, citing the shell’s market value and the cost of gasoline used on a six-to-seven-hour trip to sea.
“If I caught a green sea turtle or another protected species, I would let it go, but a Rumphius’ slit shell is not a protected species — so there is no way” I would throw it back, he said this week.
As he waited for offers, Lin said that he and his wife had stayed up all night monitoring the sea snail, making frequent trips to a convenience store for ice to keep the temperature of the water it was in at the recommended 16°C to 17°C.
Over two days, he said that they received offers of NT$60,000, NT$80,000, NT$100,000, NT$116,000, NT$120,000 and NT$160,000.
However, he sold it for NT$120,000 to a Taipei resident surnamed Liu (劉), who offered to buy it on condition that it be released back into the wild.
To fulfill the terms of the deal, Lin set out from Dasi Fishing Harbor (大溪漁港) at 2:10am on Tuesday, he said.
At about 4am, he used his phone to record as a crewmate removed the sea snail from a bucket, displayed it for the camera and released it into the sea near Turtle Island.
The Rumphius’ slit shell is the largest species in the Pleurotomariidae family of slit snails, which are named for the distinctive long slit running halfway along their shells.
The species is found in waters between Japan and the Philippines at depths of 100m to 400m. Their shells are sought after by collectors due to their rareness, size and beauty.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
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
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS