Repairing Taroko Park and Saving Corals

News Bites

Hi there.
It's time for an all-new episode of News Bites.
I'm Nancy Sun.
And I'm Kelly Kimura.
In today's news:
Repairing Taroko National Park, and saving ocean corals.
And in today's Tasty Tidbit:
The clouds tell all!
Stay tuned for those stories, coming up next.
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太魯閣國家公園需花費10億修復
Taroko National Park Repairs Will Cost $1 Billion NT
Taroko National Park is known for its spectacular (壯觀) mountains and marble canyons (大理石峽谷).
The park was established in 1986 to protect the stunning beauty of the Taroko gorge.
The gorge is a 19 km long canyon.
It's filled with breathtaking scenic views of nature.
Millions of tourists flock to see the amazing views every year.
But the park has suffered severe damage from the powerful earthquake that happened on Apr 3rd.
The gorge and nearby trails were buried in landslides (土石流) and rockslides (岩石滑落).
Facilities (設施) and structures were also severely damaged.
Access to the gorge has been closed until further notice.
According to preliminary (初步) estimates, restoring the park would cost more than $1 billion NT.
And that is only for parts of the park that the Ministry of the Interior (內政部) takes care of.
However, $1 billion NT is just a rough estimate.
There are still aftershocks (餘震) in the area which have delayed detailed assessments.
There are also severely affected areas which experts cannot get to on foot.
The assessments have to be done by aerial photography (空拍).
The April 3rd earthquake is the strongest since the 921 quake 25 years ago.
Not only did it damage the national park, it also caused many buildings in Hualien to collapse.
Even the famous hotel within the national park, Silks Place Taroko, is temporarily closed for damage assessments and repairs.
相關單位評估3個月後將能夠逐漸開放災損較不嚴重的步道。
There is no definite date for when the park will be fully reopened.
But officials are confident that they will restore the park to its former glory.
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用吸管保護小珊瑚
Boba Straws Save Young Corals
We've all see the devastating (毀滅性) effects of plastic pollution in the ocean.
That includes plastic straws.
Many people have watched the video of a vet pulling out a plastic straw from a sea turtle’s nose.
But now, scientists are putting straws in the ocean to protect coral (珊瑚).
What are they thinking?
Don’t worry, these are not the usual plastic straws that we use for drinking.
It’s a biodegradable (生物分解) straw that will dissolve (溶解) in the ocean after a few months.
Scientists have been working hard to save coral reefs all over the world.
One of the solutions is growing new corals in lab and placing them in the ocean.
There is however, a major problem.
Fishes like to bite newly transplanted (移植) coral and destroy them.
This leaves the corals with a less than 40% survival rate (存活率).
One expert say parrot fish especially love biting the new corals.
He says it's like popcorn to them.
The fish lose interest as the coral grows up, but protection is needed when the corals are little.
To solve the problem, the experts and another researcher came up with a solution.
They created a small cage with biodegradable straws and put it over the new corals.
This increased the survival rate of newly transplanted corals to over 90%.
They called it the “Coral Fort.”
At first, they used regular sized straws that dissolve after 2 months.
However, the fish still wanted to bite the coral after 2 months.
They then experimented with other straws until they found the perfect one…
Boba straws (珍奶吸管)!
Boba straws are wider and thicker than average drinking straws.
And that gives just enough time for the coral to grow until the straws dissolve.
誰能想得到可生物分解的珍珠奶茶吸管竟然能保護珊瑚。
Experts hope that the Coral Fort can benefit reef restoration projects (珊瑚復原計畫) all over the world.
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So in today's News Bites,
Taroko National Park was severely damaged after the powerful earthquake that happened on Apr 3rd.
According to preliminary estimates, restoring the park would cost more than $1 billion NT.
But officials are confident that they will restore the park to its former glory.
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And
Scientists are using biodegradable boba straws in the ocean to protect coral.
They make small cages with the straws and put them over the new corals.
This has increased the survival rate of newly transplanted corals to over 90%.
Experts hope that the Coral Fort can benefit reef restoration projects all over the world.
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趣味小點
Tasty Tidbit
And in today's Tasty Tidbit,
Looking up at fluffy clouds can be fun.
But did you know their shapes can tell you about the weather?
Stratus clouds are flat with a layer of gray. They often mean there might be a bit of rain coming.
Puffy white clouds mean nice weather.
And cirrus clouds are wispy, like long feathers. They might mean that a storm is coming!
And that's it for today's episode of News Bites!
If you have a fun fact, a joke or interesting news story you'd like to share with us, record your message and send us your Tasty Tidbit to [e-mail], and you might hear it at the end of an episode.
We'll see you next time for an exciting new episode of News Bites!