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When traveling we all like to send postcards to friends and family to share our feelings and the scenic views around us which makes them quite meaningful souvenirs. On Green Island off Taiwan’s southeastern coast postcards mailed from the bottom of the sea have been generating business opportunities worth NT$60 million. Why are postcards that have “floated in the ocean” such a hit with tourists from Taiwan and abroad?

“Dancing and whirling, rising and sinking over the wide, endless ocean, blowing up the slopes and down the mountain sides amid eternal summits and plains, it has swept into the beautiful mountain valley, the Pacific wind is always blowing…,”sings the melodic voice of Taiwanese indigenous singer Ara Kimbo. To the sound of Kimbo’s famous song Pacific Wind the ocean right in front of us sends a fresh breeze, also welcoming postcards that have been retrieved from the underwater mailbox.

These seaborne postcards, which sell at NT$70 a piece, do not only convey travelers’ mood and carry their best wishes but also generate around NT$60 million worth of economic benefits for Green Island.

How was all this achieved?

The World’s Deepest Underwater Mailbox

Let’s turn back the clock to May last year when the Taitung County Government and Chunghwa Post, Taiwan’s postal service, joined hands for the first time to create an underwater mailbox in the shape of Green Island’s famour pygmy seahorse known as Hippocampus colemanior Coleman’s Seahorse.

The project was inspired by a local scuba diver’s artistic underwater creation. As Wang Kuo-cheng, deputy director of the Taitung County Tourism Department, notes, a local scuba diving operator had put up a mailbox at a depth of around 6 meters, hoping to add another fun factor for scuba diving tourists. “After he did that, he was reported for breaking the law so we asked him, of course, to remove it.”



Source: Taitung County Government

As the county government consulted with the owner of the underwater mailbox, they learned that there are underwater mailboxes in other countries that are veritable tourist magnets. Following discussions they decided to get the government involved to secure a budget and manpower to build the underwater mailbox. Overall some NT$5 million were spent to construct the seahorse-shaped mailbox out of 316 stainless steel, a type that does not impair the marine environment. It was set up at a depth of 11.5 meters on the sandy ocean floor of the Shilang diving area, some 60 meters of the coast, making it the deepest underwater mailbox in the world.

It is modeled after Coleman’s seahorse, a pygmy seahorse measuring 7 mm to 19 mm in length which lives around Green Island in stable herds. The rare seahorses like to dwell in coral reef drop-off zones, with calcified halimeda algae forming their main habitat. Green Island began to use the tiny sea creature to promote the island after it was voted one of the top 100 diving destinations in the world by Australia's diving community in 2008.

Soaked Postcards Undergo Treatment Before Being Sent on

To make the underwater mailbox service feasible, the Taitung County Government collaborated with Chunghwa Post. First, the postcards had to be made from waterproof materials. Teachers and students from Green Island were to create the postcard motifs with an eye to marketing the island’s special features and emphasizing love for the ocean.

Then, they negotiated with local scuba diving school operators to collect the underwater mail three times per week during peak season and once a week during off-season. Before the wet ocean mail could be sent on from the local post office to its destinations, the postcards had to be rinsed with fresh water and then left to dry, a process that takes about one week.

About one tenth of the 20,000 postcards sent so far went to overseas destinations, spreading the word about the scenic beauty of the island. Around 1,000 were returned, mostly because the addresses contained errors so that the postcards could not be delivered.

Mailing a postcard from the sea floor requires a bit of an effort, namely donning full scuba diving gear – oxygen tank, wetsuit and diving mask – and then dive to the underwater mailbox.

After a leisurely swim of 15 minutes, the mailbox comes into sight. Diving tourists bring the postcards they wrote earlier and put them in the mailbox slot. During the dive they can enjoy the underwater world, watching tropical fish swim amid the coral reefs. There’s definitely no time to get bored during the 40-minute excursion.

Advanced open water diver Yeh Ching-fang says that Chaikou and Shilang are shore dive areas that are suitable for beginners. Many tourists pick Green Island as their scuba diving destination because they are curious about the underwater mailbox. As a man-made structure in the marine environment, the mailbox is eye-catching and now ranks among Green Island’s three “must be photographed” underwater landmarks along with a heart-shaped sculpture next to it and a large cross.

Yeh believes that even by international standards Green Island is a spectacular unique diving destination because the water here is so clean and clear that visibility reaches 20 meters. On top of that, the areas boasts many different corals and abundant marine life. During a dive at Diangan Reef she once witness coral spawning, the process when corals release large quantities of eggs and sperm into the surrounding water. “It looked like it was snowing on the sea floor, small, white snowflakes were whirling around the bodies of the divers,” recalls Yeh.



Photo by Chien-Ying Chiu/CW

Does an Underwater Mailbox Harm the Environment?

What about adverse effects on the marine environment? After all, the mailbox attracts a sizable number of scuba divers.

Regarding such concerns, Wang explains that the mailbox was deliberately placed in a part of the Shilang scuba diving area that does not boast many coral riffs to disperse the crowds and minimize the impact on areas with rich marine life. Also, a fraction of the proceeds from the postcard sales is paid back to the community to support local schools and organizations. So far, NT$300,000 have accumulated for this feedback fund.

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A scuba diving instructor points out that the mail collectors take mesh net sacks with them on each dive to collect trash from the sea floor. The mailbox itself also functions as a trash can since a large net bag has been attached to its base to that divers can conveniently deposit ocean trash that they collect during their dives. If the mail collectors find objects other than mail in the mailbox they treat them as trash.

“We hope to be able to maintain Green Island’s marine life and environment while improving the tourism industry and achieving economies of scale,” remarks Wang. The postcards are only a means to attract attention as part of a tourism promotion strategy that aims to position Green Island as a scuba diving paradise. The fun dives to the underwater mailbox also provide an opportunity to educate visitors about marine ecology and popularize nature conservation concepts. (Read: Toward Sustainable Tourism by 2020)

Mailbox Dives Lead to Longer Stays

In Taiwan’s stifling hot summers, scuba diving and snorkeling in the Pacific ocean are a popular pastime to cool down. Thanks to its clean and crystal-clear water, rich coral reefs and swarms of tropical fish Green Island has already built a reputation as a diver’s paradise. Aside from its famous “Big Mushroom,” one of the biggest small-pore coral “rock” formations in the world, and artificial reefs, Green Island now also boasts a seahorse-shaped underwater mailbox.



Source: Taitung County Government

In the past, most tourists would visit Green Island on day trips, leaving from Taitung by boat in the morning and returning the same day. However, a stay of at least two days and one night is necessary if one wants to make the dive to the underwater mailbox. Unexperienced divers and people who take a flight instead of the ferry will have to schedule longer stays of more than three days and two nights to be able to complete the dive.

As of April this year, more than 20,000 underwater postcards had been sold since the unveiling of the mailbox in May 2018, according to Taitung County Government statistics, generating business opportunities worth at least NT$60 million for various local industries such as hotels and pensions, food and beverage, and transportation. Wang believes that the actual output value will probably be even higher since the marketing and advertising effect resulting from the establishment of the underwater mailbox still keeps snowballing. After all, Green Island is going into the peak summer season only now.

Translated by Susanne Ganz

Edited by Sharon Tseng