TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Shei-Pa National Park Headquarters on Friday called on the public to vote for its Formosan Landlocked Salmon Conservation Center in the ongoing “Spotlighting” campaign organized by the Tourism Administration.
The center, which is dedicated to preserving the Formosan landlocked salmon, is a key part of the park’s conservation mission, per CNA. The endemic species, also called cherry salmon, is considered a national treasure due to its ecological importance and rarity.
After facing near extinction, cherry salmon’s population has seen significant recovery thanks to decades of conservation work led by the park. Park officials said the center was nominated for the Tourism Administration’s Spotlighting campaign by the National Park Service to showcase its conservation achievements.
To encourage public participation, the park launched a promotional raffle: anyone who comments “one vote a daily to show support for national treasure fish” (天天挺國寶魚1票) and tags three friends under the park's Spotlighting campaign post will be entered to win a park-themed cooler bag. Ten winners will be selected.
The cherry salmon was first discovered during the Japanese colonial period by Aoki Takeo, assistant to biologist Oshima Masamitsu, per SETN. While Oshima studied under ichthyologist David Starr Jordan at Stanford University, Aoki remained in Taiwan to collect aquatic specimens.
After learning from local Indigenous communities in the Lishan area about an unusual salmon species, Aoki secured a specimen and shared it with Oshima. The species was initially named after the Indigenous Saramo tribe, but Jordan later recommended naming it after Formosa, then a widely recognized name for Taiwan.
Once critically endangered, the cherry salmon population fell to fewer than 200 individuals by 1995. Thanks to over 30 years of habitat restoration and breeding programs, their numbers have now rebounded to more than 180,000.
To raise public awareness, the park has launched a live-stream feed of their river habitat, allowing viewers worldwide to observe the species in real time.
Conservation efforts continue, including a major tree-planting initiative at nearby Wuling Farm, aimed at restoring forests near salmon habitats, per Environmental Information Center. The farmland, originally cultivated by retired soldiers, is now being reforested. More than 90% of the former farmlands are already in transition.
National Taiwan Ocean University Assistant Professor Liao Lin-yen (廖林彥) explained that cherry salmon are highly sensitive to environmental conditions. They require water temperatures below 17 C year-round, and below 10 C during the breeding season.
The cherry salmon’s diet consists of about 70% aquatic insects and 30% terrestrial insects, meaning forest quality directly impacts their food sources. Liao emphasized that reforestation not only improves water quality but also provides shade and nutrients that strengthen the ecosystem’s resilience to climate and environmental stress.
However, habitat quality is not the only concern, per UDN. Chang Jung Christian University Professor Sebastian D. Fugmann warned that the cherry salmon may be genetically vulnerable due to the absence of the interleukin-4 gene, which plays a key role in immune response.
Fugmann’s team found that although genetic diversity in the wild population is limited, the presence of some antigen variation offers hope. Fugmann added that the lack of interleukin-4 might be a result of the species' landlocked evolution and suggested that the cherry salmon could serve as a model species for studying how immune system genes adapt over time.
