Cold snap and low temperatures cause agricultural and fishery losses: milkfish in shallow ponds freeze to death, tomatoes and bitter gourd suffer major losses

With this cold snap pushing low temperatures down to 10 degrees, the Council of Agriculture (COA) reported that as of 5 p.m. today (the 13th), estimated losses to agricultural products totaled NT$30.45 million, of which crops damaged covered about 239 hectares, with a damage rate of 17% and losses of NT$20.56 million, with tomatoes and bitter gourd suffering the biggest losses. Aquaculture losses were reported at NT$9.89 million, mainly because milkfish cannot tolerate low temperatures and died. The Yunlin County Government conservatively estimates that the county's fishery losses exceed NT$10 million, but these have not yet been included in the statistics.

The Fisheries Agency's Aquaculture Division said that overall, the aquaculture damage caused by this cold snap is not serious; it was mainly the milkfish stocked as working fish in hard clam ponds that died. "But this type of milkfish is not the main product; its main function is to eat the algae at the bottom of the pond, so about a few hundred to one or two thousand fish are stocked per hectare."

Although the overall damage was not serious, Huang Fen-hsiang, an ecological hard clam farmer in Qigu, Tainan, pointed out that the working fish in her hard clam ponds, such as milkfish and golden trevally, all died, and she had to remove the dead milkfish, green algae and filamentous algae by hand herself, otherwise the hard clams would suffocate; meanwhile, Cai Chang-cai, a milkfish farmer in Beimen, Tainan, said that in the deep-water farming section, it was especially cold from last night to the early hours of today, and the milkfish could not take it, so from morning to afternoon he was busy rushing to harvest and sell them. "But the price will definitely be relatively poor. Everyone is rushing to harvest and sell at this time, so when there is a lot of fish on the market the price gets pushed down. On top of that, the fish at this time are not 100% fresh or of the best quality, so it is very hard to sell them at a good price; most of them are sent to processing plants."

Yunlin: Cold snap damages initially estimated at over 600 hectares, mostly milkfish frozen to death

Lin Hui-ju of the Yunlin County Government's Agriculture Department said that the area damaged by this cold snap is initially estimated at over 600 hectares, mainly hard clam ponds where the polycultured milkfish froze to death, with a mortality rate of 20% to 30%, and conservatively estimated losses of over NT$10 million. Damage was relatively serious in Mailiao Township, Taixi Township, Sihu Township and Kouhu Township, and she called on the central government to show concern for the fishermen's losses and immediately launch a cold damage relief mechanism to help fishermen get through the crisis.

The Agriculture Department also said that for milkfish stocked in hard clam ponds with relatively shallow water, cold resistance is weaker. If the water temperature falls below 15°C, groundwater should be pumped in to raise the water temperature, and if necessary, early harvesting should be planned to reduce cold damage losses.