Center for Formosan salmon opened

The center consists of two major buildings, the display center and the laboratory. The laboratory will be responsible for breeding and preserving the rare fish to ensure its continuation on the island, showing the government’s determination to protect the almost-extinct species.

According to Shei-Pa National Park director Lin Ching, the captive breeding work, which takes up a good deal of laboratory work, and research into the best conditions for the fish’s breeding, is aimed at producing and maintaining a stock of fish for reintroduction when and where required.

The Formosan land-locked salmon is the only salmon species in the world found in a subtropical area. Before the 1950s, large numbers of these fish swam in the waters of the upper Ta-Chai (大甲) River in central Taiwan.

Now, they are only found in Chichiawan(七家灣) Stream at the Wuling Farm. In a field survey done in 1990, the total population of this salmon was only around 300. So far, according to the national park, the number of fish has since increased to around 2,000.

The fish became land-locked during a glacial epoch in a frigid mountain stream; thus, its discovery in Taiwan, a subtropical island, was truly a miracle in the history of biology and has received much attention from world scientists.

Salmon normally live most of their life in the arctic waters of the north Pacific, and the group land-locked in subtropical Taiwan, at 24-25 degrees latitude, is further south than any others in the world.

It seems that the ancestors of the Taiwan salmon migrated from the Sea of Japan to Taiwan several hundred thousand years ago, when the climate was much colder (salmon need water no warmer than 16 degrees Celsius to survive).

Subsequent geological disturbances and the rising of air and water temperatures made it impossible for the fish to return safely to the ocean; thus, an isolated population developed in Taiwan’s mountain rivers.

Another important activity during the festival to protect the survival of the land-locked salmon was tree planting. A total of 200 Taiwanese maples were planted in the farm last weekend, and a total of 12,000 baby trees will eventually be planted.

At the tree-planting ceremony, Wuling Farm deputy director Li Ching-pin said that to show its determination to protect the rare fish, the farm will abandon all economic farming, such as the planting of fruits and vegetables, and instead move toward ecotourism by planting more trees. Li disclosed that the farm will thus lose about NT$40 million in income annually.

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