Between October and the following April of every year, the northeast monsoon is prevalent in Hsinchu city, leading to serious coastal drift and causing Hsinchu Fish Harbor’s channel to silt up. The city government has received NT$30 million from the central government to pay for dredging the harbor. Plans have already been drawn up, and it is hoped that the work will go out for tender at the end of the year. The project is expected to last for nine months, during which fishing will not be affected.
It is estimated that the dredging project will remove 170,000 square meters of sediment, clearing a sea lane 30 meters long and six meters wide, allowing fishing boats to come in and out of the harbor unencumbered and not needing to worry about the tide. The dredged sediment is to be used to refill the north side of the embankment, and will then be covered in a layer of soil as a simple greening.
At present, fishermen are having to go out to sea and return to harbor in time with the tide, and this is severely affecting the amount of time they can be out, as well as the size of their catch. However, some say that simply dredging the harbor is only addressing the symptoms of the problem, and that the best way to solve the long-term problem of Hsinchu harbor silting up is to conduct a survey of the west coast, including calculating the amount of silt and the affect of the northeast monsoon, and addressing the root causes.