Hi there, it's time for another episode of News Bites!

I'm Nancy Sun…

And I'm Hope Ngo.

In today's news:

Hands off the turtles, drugs out of the sea, and trends not to follow.

All that and more, coming up next.

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小琉球遊客摸海龜挨罰

Hands Off Sea Turtles!

Do you want to swim with sea turtles?

Over the years, the island of Xiaoliuqiu (小琉球) has worked hard to protect sea turtles.

Now, there are hundreds of sea turtles that live around Xiaoliuqiu.

The island has more sea turtles than any other islands in Taiwan.

The turtles are very friendly and are not afraid of humans.

But they are also protected.

This means people are not allowed to touch them.

The law says people who bother (騷擾，干擾) protected animals could be fined up to $300,000 NT.

Recently, some tourists (遊客) bothered animals.

They were snorkeling (浮淺).

And a diving coach saw one of the tourists touch a sea turtle.

He warned them not to do that.

But they did not listen.

So he took a video of what they did.

The video showed one of the tourists holding on to a sea turtle’s shell underwater.

The diving coach told the police.

And the police are now investigating the case.

Once officers find out who the person is, they will be fined (被罰款).

Tourists bothering sea turtles in Xiaoliuqiu is a problem that keeps happening.

Everyone should stay at least 5 meters away from the sea turtles at all times.

當你在海中看見這些美麗的動物時，請保持距離觀賞，不要打擾他們。

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藥物流入海

Drugs Found in the Sea

We know that water pollution is a serious problem.

People dumping garbage, factories dumping wastewater, pesticides (農藥) from farms…

They all go into the water, which eventually ends up in the ocean.

Now, there is another harmful pollutant, medicine.

New research shows high levels of medicine in the sea.

The drugs come from human waste (排泄物).

All this goes into the sewers (下水道).

Then, the wastewater goes through a water treatment plant.

But some places do not require chemicals, like medicine, to be taken out of wastewater.

And that wastewater goes into the ocean.

The medicine in the wastewater can affect wildlife.

The drugs might cause crustaceans (甲殼類) and mollusks (軟體動物) to change color or reproduce (繁殖) in a different way.

Researchers say many types of drugs have been found in the water.

Drugs for depression (抗憂鬱藥物), for type 2 diabetes and for other diseases have been found.

這令人擔憂，因為我們對於人類藥物對生態環境所造成的影響了解的不多。

The good news is we now know about this problem.

This means we can be more careful about taking drugs out of wastewater.

Scientists are now finding ways to take drugs out of the water.

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壽司餐廳對惡搞少年提告求償

Sushi Chain Sues Prankster

Back in January, a video of a high school student went viral.

The student was eating at a sushi restaurant.

He licked a soy sauce bottle and a cup before putting them back for other people to use.

He also used his dirty fingers to touch sushi passing by on the conveyor belt (輸送帶).

Now, the restaurant is suing the student for $67,000,000 Japanese yen.

That’s about 14,600,000 NT!

The restaurant says the video made them lose customers.

And the restaurant says the video also made the price of the company’s stock fall.

The video helped give rise to the term “sushi terrorism.”

Some people did things to contaminate (污染) food that other people eat.

這些影片拍攝者只是想透過惡作劇引起關注。

These trends should not be encouraged and people should know better than to follow them.

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So, in today's News Bites…

Recently, some tourists touched sea turtles in Xiaoliuqiu.

The law says people who bother protected animals could be fined up to $300,000 NT.

Police are now investigating the case.

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New research shows high levels of medicine in the sea.

The medicine in the wastewater can affect wildlife.

Scientists are now finding ways to take drugs out of the water.

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And,

Back in January, a video of a high school student at a sushi restaurant went viral.

The student licked a soy sauce bottle and a cup, and used his dirty fingers to touch sushi.

Now, the restaurant is suing the student for about 14,600,000 NT!

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And that's today's episode of News Bites!

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主播每周一問

Have Your Say

This week, we want you to have your say about listening.

There are so many things we can listen to, whenever we want to. We can listen to music, or the radio, or we can even go outside and listen to birds, or other parts of nature.

So, what is your favorite thing to listen to?

Record your message and send it to [email protected] with your name and age, and if you'd like, the name of your school.

Send us your recording by Thursday at noon, and you might hear your message on our show on Friday!