| Sun grew
up near Bitan in Sindian, where he enjoyed swimming and
fishing. Fish rearing became his hobby. His knowledge about
fish and related conservation issues were largely self-taught.
More than ten years ago, he realized that he had never laid
eyes on Oryzias latipes latipes, a type of ricefish that
was very common in Taiwan during the Japanese occupation
era. He was intrigued. “Is it extinct?”
And so he began his investigation on the matter. He would
hop onto his motorbike whenever he was free and tried
to track down the elusive fish pond by pond. Once he got
caught in a swamp and almost drowned. Snakes posed constant
threats on his sleuthing trips. Sun’s family was angry
with him so spending so much time and effort on the fish,
but Sun was determined in his quest to locate the fish.
A year later, Sun was rewarded for his efforts. Someone
had supposedly caught a glimpse of the ricefish in Yilan.
Sun rushed to the place. And when he laid eyes on the
ricefish, he almost cried.
Sun now faced the difficulty of rearing the fish. There
were hardly any research done, and Sun experimented for
many months before the fish began to spawn successfully.
Many scholars were amazed at his success; they had never
even seen a ricefish themselves, let alone its spawn!
But inbreeding soon became a problem. Sun began to look
for new communities, and to his surprise he found that
ricefish from different regions have different characteristics.
Sun then started to give away the fry to involve more
people in the conservation effort. To his dismay his fry
became commodities on online markets. He gave the fry
to schools instead, helped schools to start their own
ponds, and taught students about the fish. Sun thinks
that an ecological pond is not only beautiful to look
at, it is also an important opportunity for young children
to be close to nature and to get to understand wetland
ecology. He said, “Taiwan’s native fish species are
very beautiful too. Once the young kids get to know them,
they will also learn to protect them.”
Ricefish are easy to keep. Just keep the water clean,
and provide suitable water plants, and they will reproduce.
Moreover, the fish will help to eat up mosquito larvae.
“I did feel lonely at first, but now I am really glad
that more and more people are joining in my efforts. ”
Sun said with a smile. His family has become very supportive,
and a retired couple, Mr. and Mrs. Chen Sheng-hua, have
even donated their pension to build a restoration pond.
Sun said, “One person may not seem powerful enough, but
together we can make a difference!”
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