97 ferry services on a total of 11 routes around Taiwan and the outlying islands were canceled on Monday, September 12, as Typhoon Muifa approaches the country, the Maritime Port Bureau announced.
The canceled services include 2 passenger boat services between Keelung-Matsu, one each between Taipei-Matsu and Matsu's Nangan-Dongyin, as well as 5 services from Chiayi County's Budai to Penghu's Magong.
These also include 50 ferries between Donggang-Liuqiu Island off Pingtung County in the south, and 2 between Jiangjun Fishing Harbor (Tainan)-Dongji Fishing Harbor (Penghu).
In addition, 12 ferry services between Yanpu-Liuqiu off Pingtung along with 24 passenger boat services to Orchid & Green islands off Taiwan's southeastern coast were canceled.
Ferryboats to/from Liuqiu were also canceled on Monday and Tuesday due to adverse sea weather conditions. The services are expected to restart on Wednesday, September 14, depending on the weather.
According to CWB-Citing Central Weather Bureau's forecast, sea waves along the routes between Donggang-Liuqiu generated by the storm's surface winds could reach up to 1,9 m in height, so the ferry operators decided to cancel their services for 2 days when the typhoon is expected to be closest to Taiwan.
As of 11 am Monday, the typhoon was located ~290 km east-southeast of Taipei, moving slowly at a speed of 8 kph in a northwesterly direction. It was carrying max sustained winds of 144 kph with gusts of up to 180 kph and had a radius of 150 km.