Hushan Dam update

Recent typhoon damage to the Hushan area:- photo courtesy of C.C.Chen



The Hushan Dam project has long been seen as a threat to the humpback dolphins. Once complete, the dam will further reduce the flow of fresh water into the Jhoushui River Estuary degrading valuable dolphin habitat.

The Stop Hushan Dam Blog has posted photos of the construction work in the Hushan area and the damage caused during recent typhoons.

Additionally, there is an update on the citizen's suit against the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) over the construction of the dam.

Action needed to preserve rare dolphin, scientist says

Dr. Peter Ross


Dr. Peter Ross, chair of the Eastern Taiwan Strait Sousa Technical Advisory Working Group (ETSSTAWG) is currently in Taiwan attending Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Roundtable Meeting on the Involvement of Business/Private Sector in Sustainability of the Marine Environment. Ross urged the Taiwanese authorities to urgently list the dolphins' habitat as a preservation zone and to prohibit any kind of development in the zone. Failure to act now would in all likelihood result in the rapid extinction of this unique population of dolphins.


Also see: Action needed to preserve rare dolphin, scientist says

Nets and Dolphins

Humpback Dolphin with a rope around it: Photo courtesy and copyright FormosaCetus Research & Conservation Group


In our September 9 post, titled Pictures from Mailiao, we showed a photo of nets and then a fishing boat in the close inshore waters off Mailiao. Nets do pose a major threat to these dolphins as shown in this post's photos !

We've received the following photos from FormosaCetus Research & Conservation Group of a humpback dolphin with a rope around it taken on September 7th just west of Mailiao Port's long pier. The humpback dolphin was swimming around and feeding near gillnets [as shown in the photos - the red and black flags or "high flyers" as they are called, mark the ends of a gillnet. The rope looks as if it is likely the leadline of a gillnet.] The rope seems to be digging into the skin a bit and maybe a fairly recent entanglement. If this dolphin can't lose the rope, it definitely will have an impact on it's life. The dolphin has been identified as TW-36.



Humpback Dolphin with a rope around it. The red and black flags or "high flyers" as they are called, mark the ends of a gillnet. The rope looks as if it is likely the leadline of a gillnet: Photos courtesy and copyright FormosaCetus Research & Conservation Group

Why are we building dams for new power plants ?

The world's dirtiest ! Wuchi Power Plant through the haze (Taichung).

Read the article titled, Emissions policy doesn't add up from today's Taipei Times and then ask yourself the question, Why are we building dams for new power plants ?

Destroying valuable natural areas like Hushan, part of an internationally recognised important bird area (IBA), so new dams can supply huge quantities of water to new and upgraded power plants, and the new heavy industry that those power plants are supplying power to, and in the process increase emissions by up to 40% and at the same time wreck large areas of coastal habitat through reclamation projects and pollution which will likely result in the extinction of the critically endangered population of Taiwan humpback dolphin when we are trying to reduce emission levels because of the very real threat of global warming just seems insane. Wow! What a mouthful. Well, you get the point. Read the article, ask the question, and if you figure out the logic in this, please let us know.

Also see:
Planting trees a PR ploy

Pictures from Mailiao

Developers have denied that Taiwan humpback dolphins inhabit the waters around the Formosa Plastics Group in Mailiao. Evidence clearly shows that these critically endangered dolphins do. Despite official IUCN listing as a critically endangered population and its status as a protected species under Taiwan law, development within what little remains of the humpback dolphins' habitat continues unchecked. The following are recent photographs of reclamation work at Mailiao. This is the area where the video footage was shot and where the photo on the cover of the Second Workshop Report was taken.



Reclamation work extending out towards the coastguard tower clearly visible in the video.





Fishing just off the reclamation area.






An endless stream of trucks dump boulders into the water.









Reclamation work right where the dolphin photo was taken










Reclamation work going on at another site across the river mouth clearly visible from the FPG site.

Also see:

Mailiao Reclamation Site - The Green Area ?

Photos from Mailiao: more dolphin habitat gone !

FPG land reclamation in pink dolphin habitat update

Being the change we want to see in the world: Robin Winkler Interview

Robin Winkler in front of the Wuchi Power Plant, the world's dirtiest coal-fired power plant.


Today's Taipei Times carries an interview with Robin Winkler, founding director of Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association. Robin has been a long-serving Taiwan-based environmentalist and Wild is secretariat for the Matsu's Fish Conservation Union.

Click Being the change we want to see in the world to read the interview.

MFCU Press Release:- Matsu’s Fish seizes “Critically Endangered” title, winning international glory for Taiwan

Note: The following is the press release/petition delivered by Matsu's Fish Conservation Union, Green Party Taiwan, the Congressional Office of Legislator Tian Chiu-chin and Taiwan Friends of the Global Greens on 13 August 2008 during a press conference held in front of the Council of Agriculture in response to the listing of Taiwan's humpback dolphins as "Critically Endangered" by the IUCN in its 2008 update of the Cetacean Red List.

Photo: A make-shift President Ma presents the Critically Endangered award to a humpback dolphin.


The Matsu's Fish Conservation Union, established in January 2007, is a coalition of the following Taiwanese conservation groups: Taiwan Academy of Ecology, Taiwan Sustainable Union, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association, Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, Wild Bird Society of Yunlin, Changhua Coast Conservation Action and FormosaCetus Research and Conservation Group.


PRESS RELEASE:
13 August 2008, Taipei,
Petition at Council of Agriculture

Due to being isolated from other populations of the same species, Taiwan’s “Matsu’s Fish” (Sousa chinensis), also known as the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin or Chinese white dolphin, has evolved in a way that distinguishes it from other populations. It is now recognized by the international cetacean science community that Taiwan’s Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins constitute a unique population.

Because of the serious level of threat to this population, local and international experts formed the Eastern Taiwan Strait Sousa Technical Advisory Working Group (ETSSTAWG) on 8 January 2008. The following day, Taiwanese environmental groups presented a petition to the Executive Yuan, requesting the government to draft a conservation plan within two months. Regrettably, after half a year of efforts by those environmental groups, the government has still not proposed a conservation plan, instead expressing plans to open up the coastal waters within three nautical miles of the shore to drag-net fishing, which will thoroughly destroy the near-shore ecology.

While the government continues to evade its responsibility to protect the environment, the threat to the survival of Taiwan’s Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins is, however, receiving increasing international recognition. On 12 August (GMT), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which comprises 70 countries, over 1000 societies and over 10 000 scientists, has assessed Taiwan’s Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins to be Critically Endangered (CR), the highest level of threat to a species or population.

In response to the IUCN announcing Taiwan’s Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins as Critically Endangered, Taiwanese environmental groups are holding a press conference to raise the attention of the government and public to the fact that the conservation of Taiwan’s Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins has already become the focus of attention of international conservation organizations, and is a responsibility that the government has no choice but to face. Today, the groups presenting this petition are also visiting the Competent Authority for wildlife conservation – the Council of Agriculture – to ask that the government take urgent conservation action. We have three requests:

1. Set up an interdepartmental Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin conservation committee, which should work with ETSSTAWG to produce a conservation strategy.
2. Implement marine conservation laws, announce this dolphin population’s important habitat, and prevent the development of near-shore drag-net fishing.
3. Stop the large-scale, pollution-intensive development within areas which affect the dolphins until it is certain that these projects will have no impact on the dolphins.

Groups presenting this petition:
Taiwan Sustainable Union, Taiwan Academy of Ecology, Green Party Taiwan, Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association, Congressional Office of Legislator Tian Chiu-chin, Taiwan Friends of the Global Greens, Wild Bird Society of Yunlin, Changhua Coast Conservation Action and FormosaCetus Research and Conservation Group.

Time: 13 August 2008 (Wednesday), 9.30am
Venue: Council of Agriculture (37 Nanhai Road, Chongcheng District, Taipei)


2008 Introduction to Matsu’s Fish (Sousa chinensis, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, Chinese white dolphin)

The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis), otherwise known as the Chinese white dolphin and in Taiwan as Matsu’s Fish, is grey when born, forms grey spots during its youth and becomes white or pink when mature (hence another of its names – the pink dolphin). It is believed that the name “Matsu’s Fish”, given by fishermen, is due to the fact that they are easier to see around the time of Matsu’s birthday in the third month of the lunar calendar, when the sea becomes calmer. This species is distributed in the temperate and tropical zones of the Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific region, and prefers near shore waters and estuaries. Research by FormosaCetus Research and Conservation Group has shown that the coloration of the Taiwanese population is different to that of other studied populations, and is likely an independent population. The entire population is now facing risk of extinction.

Current knowledge of the biology and ecology of Taiwan’s Matsu’s Fish is as follows: 1. Their important habitat is along Taiwan’s central west coast from Miaoli to Yunlin and possibly Chiayi and Tainan Counties, within 5km of the shore, and in waters of not more than 25-30m deep. 2. Under natural circumstances they can live to probably 30-40 years old. 3. They have a low reproductive rate and population growth rate, and a nursing period of about 3 years. 4. Currently, over 30% of the dolphins show signs of external injury, and malnourished dolphins are often seen. 5. According to the results of photo identification work by researchers, the entire Taiwanese population does not exceed 100 and is likely to be lower than 100.

Because they live all year round in shallow, near-shore waters, they are extremely vulnerable to human-caused impacts. In Taiwan they face the following threats: loss of habitat due to land reclamation along Taiwan’s west coast, serious water pollution, entanglement and bycatch in fishing gear, e.g. gill nets (drift nets, trammel nets, bottom-set gill nets) and drag nets, direct collisions with vessels, and impacts on their sonar systems due to underwater noise. In China, the baiji or Yangtze River Dolphin, also known as the Goddess of the Yangtze, was recently driven to extinction due to similar, multiple threats. Now Matsu’s Fish is facing a survival crisis, as there are no more than 100 dolphins left in the population and the threats remain.

The dolphins’ survival can also be seen as an indicator of the sustainability (or lack thereof) of Taiwan’s development. Great challenges lie ahead for the conservation of the population.

Click diagram to enlarge.
Source: IUCN Species Survival Commission.


Other photos from the petition:









Also see:
Critically Endangered - It's Official !

Press Release: Taiwan’s unique population of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins is on the brink of extinction

Matsu’s Fish seizes “Critically Endangered” title, winning international glory for Taiwan