Thousands of Chinese sand-stealing ships attack "Taiwan shallow pile" rich fishing products and quartz sand are facing havoc, and no one is afraid if they are caught for only a few months.

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The "Taiwan shallow pile", located on the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, is the incubation and spawning place of Penghu platinum "native fish" and is rich in fishery resources. however, over the past two decades, the seabed ecology has been damaged by China's "roller bottom trawl". Recently, Chinese sand dredgers have been stealing sea sand here, facing ecological catastrophe. Although the Maritime Patrol has stepped up its investigation, because the violation of the law is only sentenced to four to six months, which does not have a deterrent effect, people call on the government to amend the law as soon as possible, increase penalties, and strengthen air reconnaissance resources in order to protect Taiwan's undersea territory.

Chinese sand carrier (photo courtesy of the Natural Ecology Conservation Association of the Republic of China) "Taiwan shallow pile" covers an area of about 1/3 of Taiwan and is rich in fishing and quartz sand.

Taiwan shallow pile, also known as Taiwan Shoal, South shallow, Taiwan Shoal and Taiwan bank, is located in the southwest of the Penghu Islands (longitude 117o40'-119o20' east and latitude 22o30'-23o20' north). It is a vast sand wave with a water depth of about 40m, the shallowest point of only 8.6m and an area of about 13,000 square kilometers (nearly 1/3 of Taiwan's area). Its center is 80 nautical miles from the Malaysian Convention and 30 nautical miles from the northern boundary of Qimei Island.

Taiwan's shallow pile is the largest traditional fishing ground in Penghu. According to the 1974 and 2020 reports of the Water Test Institute of the Council of Agriculture, the main fishery economic species in Penghu, such as native mackerel, lock tube, smelly meat mackerel, sand mackerel, white belt fish, blue round scad (Balang), etc., all spawn here; in the spawning season, Taiwan shallow mound is the main spawning ground. Between 1970 and 1990, Penghu's lock pipes and smelly meat accounted for 90% of the country's output, and the fishing ground was also near the shallow pile in Taiwan.

Gu Wenshu, master of the Department of Geosciences at the National Central University, published a paper in 2017, pointing out that the sediments in Taiwan's shallow deposits were deltas accumulated by rivers in southeastern China during the last glacial period, and the seabed sediment was mainly quartz with coarse-grained sediments. the closer you are to China and the Penghu Islands, the more feldspar there is.

Taiwan's shallow pile is located in the middle of the Taiwan Strait. China frequently invades, bottom trawling destroys coral reefs and steals sand to destroy the seabed.

Taiwan's shallow pile is located at the junction of the middle line of the Taiwan Strait. About 90% of the area east of the middle line belongs to Taiwan's territory, and the remaining 10% of the area west of the middle line belongs to economic waters. Abundant fishery resources and quartz ore are also coveted by Chinese fishing vessels and sand extraction vessels. More than 20 years ago, Chinese bottom trawlers invaded on a large scale, and roller bottom trawlers have seriously damaged the ecology of submarine coral reefs.

In recent years, many Chinese iron shell sand extraction ships and moving ships have appeared in the shallow piles in Taiwan. due to the great increase in the demand for sand and gravel in China, it is strictly forbidden to pump sand in rivers and coastal areas within the territory, so the Chinese operators have pushed the scope of operation all the way from the coast of Fujian to the middle line of the Strait. In the past three years, they have even crossed the middle line and entered the waters near Taiwan's shallow pile and Penghu Qimei. From May to October last year, the Marine Patrol expelled 560 Chinese sand pumping ships in Taiwan's shallow pile. But it is still difficult to stop the invasion of Chinese ships, with 1077 ships being expelled from January to April this year.

Zheng Mingxiu, chairman of the Natural Ecology Conservation Association of the Republic of China, said that in the past, China's roller bottom trawls had damaged coral reefs, but now hundreds of thousands of tons of sand may be mined from shallow piles in Taiwan every day. the extraction of a large amount of sea sand will change the structure of the sand and gravel layer on the seafloor, destroy the habitat of marine life, and cause the marine ecosystem to face collapse.

Zheng Mingxiu, Chairman of the Natural Ecology Conservation Association of the Republic of China (Photography _ Lin Yijun) Taiwan's first shallow seabed ecological photography and video recording, enriching fish species, coral reefs and shellfish

Born in Penghu, Cheng Ming-hsiu has been with the sea since he was a child. In April this year, Cheng Ming-hsiu and his research team went to Taiwan to conduct a diving survey. "this is the first time that Taiwan has made a shallow pile of undersea ecological photography and video records in Taiwan!" Zheng Mingxiu said excitedly that a total of about 643 fish, belonging to 16 families and 44 species, were recorded. There were many large economical fish, such as red scad, sea bass, snapper, and even saw a dragon and tiger spot about 60 centimeters long.

"three-line sea bass, cold sea bream, golden sea bass, and black butterfly shellfish." When Zheng Mingxiu dived, in addition to seeing fish, there were also many soft corals, such as sea fans, sea chicken heads, and so on. There were about a dozen species, and he even saw many mini shellfish in a large amount of quartz sand. "these mini shellfish will not grow more than one centimeter in a lifetime."

Zheng Mingxiu shows photos and can see the underwater world is colorful and full of life, but what worries him is that he immediately sees a large bottom trawl covering the soft coral and winding around the reef. "these nylon nets will not decay for hundreds of years. This fishing net is a trawl. If it goes on like this, the marine ecology is really miserable."