Taitung County restores two daily Green Island ferries

Taitung County Government has pledged to subsidize ferry operators and maintain two daily round-trip ferry services between the county and Green Island during the tourism off-season — following protests from residents.

Reporters reported that after the Lunar New Year holiday, Green Island enters its annual tourism off-season. During this period, ferry operators typically scale back service from two daily round-trips to one daily round-trip between Green Island and Taitung.

However, residents and fishers gathered Tuesday at the Green Island Fishermen’s Association plaza to petition ferry operators and the county government. They said limiting service to one round trip per day would disrupt tourism and prevent fishers from shipping their catch to Taiwan’s main island in a timely manner, per Yahoo News.

Councilor Wang Yu-li (王姷力) said she led residents in appealing directly to Taitung County Magistrate Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴) for financial support. “Maintaining two daily round trips in March is necessary to protect livelihoods and ensure stable transportation access for residents,” Wang said.

Yao agreed to allocate funding and instructed the county’s transportation department to process the subsidy as soon as possible. Beginning Sunday, ferries will operate one round trip in the morning and one round trip in the afternoon, maintaining two round trips per day during the off-season.

Ferry operators had also considered raising ticket prices for Green Island residents by NT$30 (94 cents). However, after coordination with the Taitung County Government, operators agreed to freeze fares for local residents.