Animal rights advocates yesterday urged the National Science Council (NSC) to revoke a license for an international collaborative project investigating seismic structural features of the earth’s crust in order to avoid harming marine life.
The activists made the appeal during a protest rally in front of the NSC in Taipei.
The council is sponsoring the Taiwan Integrated Geodynamics Research (TAIGER) project.
The earthquake study initiated by the Columbia University-affiliated Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is a sea floor investigation project in the exclusive economic zones of Taiwan, China, Japan and the Philippines, the conservationists said.
They said that air guns, which will be used under the sea in the study, could produce a noise equivalent to 265 decibels (dB), and could be a threat to sharks and dolphins.
The US government launched an environmental impact assessment last December and established measures aimed at minimizing adverse effects on the marine ecosystem last month, the activists said.
In comparison, the NSC granted a research permit for the project without getting the results of the impact assessment, the conservationists said.
Pointing out that the NSC convened a review meeting on the project last December but refused to make public the meetings’ minutes, the activists said they should be given a chance to provide relevant information and marine experts should be allowed to express their opinion to the NSC.
In response, NSC official Cheng Chien-hong (鄭建鴻) said boats used in the experiment will be equipped with facilities to protect marine animals.
He also said marine biologists would call a halt to the firing of air guns any time that noise limits are breached.
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