TORRENTIAL RAIN KILLS FARMED CLAMS IN TAINAN|疑大雨沖淡養殖池鹽分 七股文蛤7成受災

It's been a pretty bad year for clam farmers. Earlier this year, massive numbers of clams in Taina's Cigu District died after an extreme cold snap hit the country. After almost ten months, just when a new batch of clams were almost ready for harvest, successive typhoons and torrential rain killed approximately 70% of all farmed clams in Cigu. The farmers are now looking to the government for assistance, hoping that subsidies can be extended to mitigate their losses. The clam looks normal, but it sounds empty. If you open it up, the clam is dead and it stinks. The others are even worse, they are all empty shells. Here is Tainan's Cigu District, those clams were supposed to be under the water, but now they are either opened up or floating over the water. A large amount of clams are dead, farmers speculate it may be caused by the recent torrential rains. ==CLAM FARMER, Tainan Cigu Dist.== Clams live in sea water, torrential rains made clams immersed in water. Gradually the clams' immunity was getting weak, and they started to float. ==CLAM FARMER, Tainan Cigu Dist.== Without large quantity of sea water, its salt content may reach zero. Usually, salt content at two degree is the best for clams to live and grow. The extremely heavy rains and torrential rains caused by the three typhoons, all lowered the salt contents in clam ponds. As many as 70% of clams were dead. ==CHEN TING-FEI, DPP Legislator== The losses (caused by typhoons) of all clam farmers, we hope the Fisheries Agency can speed up their process, and come here to inspect without delay. At the beginning of this year, many clams were dead due to low temperatures. After ten months, clam farmers encountered torrential rains. The Fisheries Agency had contacted Tainan Agriculture Bureau for joint inspections, and they are to determine whether the delaying damages were caused by typhoons. TRANSLATED BY：ANTHONY LIN 外表正常，但敲擊聲音空洞的文蛤，用手撥開早已死亡，還發出惡臭，另一池狀況更慘，用手一捧全是空殼。台南七股區三股里養殖池內，這些原本該埋在土裡的文蛤，如今不是整顆裸露在外，就是漂在水中，大量暴斃死亡，漁民推測是雨水過多影響。 ==台南七股文蛤養殖戶== 文蛤是鹽水的東西 現在雨下太多泡太久 會產生抗體不好 抗體不好就會開始浮上來 ==台南七股文蛤養殖戶== 沒有大量海水交替時 就等於它的鹽分降到零度 一般文蛤要在兩度以上生長最好 9月初的連續降雨，和接連三個颱風，導致養殖池內鹽分降低，初估有七成文蛤受災。 ==民進黨立委 陳亭妃== 造成所有漁民的損失 所以我們現在希望 我們的漁業署可以趕快 儘速來做一個勘災的動作 今年初受到寒害影響，文蛤大量凍死，沒想到10個月後又再度碰上雨水過多，一年兩次災損，漁業署表示，已經和台南市農業局協調，儘速安排勘災，釐清確認是否因颱風造成的延遲性災害。 記者 李淑蘭 孟昭權 台南報導