The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin is facing extinction as a result of pollution and over-fishing, researchers said yesterday.
The researchers said that if the government did not take prompt action to protect these coast-hugging cetaceans, they may well follow in the wake of China’s Baiji dolphins, which were in 2007 confirmed to be extinct.
Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins are listed as “near threatened” by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which states that the population has been continuously decreasing.
A distinctive group of these dolphins living in Taiwan’s coastal waters numbers less than 100 and is instead listed by the IUCN as “critically endangered,” just one step above extinction. Researchers want their habitat, which spans between Miaoli and Tainan County, to be designated as a “priority habitat.”
Aided by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), the researchers, along with environmental groups, yesterday called on the government to ensure that this dolphin group would not become extinct in Taiwan.
“It’s our shared reliance on coastal waters that makes these dolphins so vulnerable,” said Peter Ross, a research scientist with the Canadian government’s Institute of Ocean Sciences.
Questions were raised over the government’s models, which said that the Taiwanese dolphin group could be sustained by simply keeping 45 to 110 of them alive.
The government should instead aim to dramatically increase those numbers, said Elisabeth Slooten, associate professor of zoology at the University of Otago in New Zealand.
Researchers also expressed concern over the government’s plan to expand a science park in Erlin (二林), Changhua County. The plan calls for discharging the science park’s wastewater 3km from the Changhua coast — directly into the center of what researchers say is the dolphin group’s habitat.
The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins are especially vulnerable to changes in their environment, researchers said. Their lifespan is between 30 and 40 years and the males and females only reach sexual maturity at 13 and 10 years of age respectively.
In response, officials from the Council of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) promised to prioritize the issue and minimize the impact caused by the Erlin science park.
Yeh Jiunn-horng (葉俊宏), director-general of Comprehensive Planning at the EPA, said requirements for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) of coastal developments that may affect the habitat already include a review of the potential impact on the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins.
Earlier this week, the Executive Yuan’s Task Force for Maritime Affairs, chaired by Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫), also promised to increase funding for the protection of and added research into the dolphins.
However, Ross said that working with a group that unsuccessfully tried to protect the Baiji dolphins showed that speed was of the utmost importance.
He said that if the issue were not dealt with hastily, Taiwan’s dolphins might soon be extinct.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and