TAIPEI — A three-day environmental cleanup in Taiwan’s Penghu archipelago removed 257 kilograms of marine debris from the remote islands of Dongji and Xiji during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday weekend.
The cleanup was organized by the Marine National Park Administration in cooperation with the Taiwan Kayak Association, bringing together about 15 volunteers with professional water-safety training.
Kayaks Reach Coastlines Larger Vessels Cannot
Because parts of Dongji and Xiji are difficult to reach by conventional vessels, volunteers used kayaks to access beaches and coastal areas where marine debris had accumulated.
After collecting the waste, volunteers transported it by kayak to a waiting motorized vessel. The debris was then taken back to Penghu for sorting and disposal.
The operation was particularly challenging on Xiji Island, an uninhabited island featuring steep coastal terrain and basalt formations. Volunteers had to carry collected debris from shorelines and coordinate transfers between kayaks and the support vessel.
Organizers said the amount of debris was greater than expected, but removing it produced a visible improvement along sections of the coastline.
Previous Cleanup Collected Nearly 869 Kilograms
The latest effort is part of a broader, long-term coastal cleanup strategy for the Southern Four Islands National Park.
During a separate three-day cleanup last year, volunteers removed 868.5 kilograms of marine debris from two northern coastal areas on Dongji. Fishing gear, expanded polystyrene and other non-recyclable materials accounted for about 65% of the collected debris.
The Marine National Park Administration has divided the Dongji and Xiji coastlines into 14 cleanup zones covering a combined 7.27 kilometers. Depending on the terrain, authorities have used boats, kayaks and rope-access operations to reach different sections of coastline.
Authorities Urge Visitors to Take Their Trash With Them
Officials emphasized that removing waste from remote islands is considerably more difficult than collecting trash on Taiwan’s main island.
Visitors to the Southern Four Islands were therefore urged to reduce the amount of waste they bring, avoid leaving trash behind and take their garbage with them when they leave.
The cleanup also highlights a wider environmental challenge facing remote coastlines: marine debris can be carried by ocean currents and winds, eventually accumulating on beaches far from where the waste originated.
For Penghu’s remote islands, the latest 257-kilogram haul shows how much waste can accumulate in hard-to-reach coastal areas — and why continued cleanup efforts remain important for protecting the region’s marine environment.
WWC ONE MEDIA G,A
