The discovery on Thursday of a protected marine species off the coast of Hualien that had been harpooned shows that illegal harpooning is still rampant in Taiwan and action must be taken to preserve the protected species, the Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation said yesterday.
Foundation chief executive Chang Hui-chun (張卉君) said that a whale-watching boat carrying clients and two of the foundation’s guides discovered a spinner dolphin drifting in the ocean with two harpoons sticking out of it at about 10am on Thursday.
Despite efforts to lift the dolphin onto the boat so that it could be taken to the Hualien Fishing Port for emergency medical treatment, it died from its injuries about 10 minutes after it was spotted, Chang said.
Photo courtesy of the Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation
The spinner dolphin was “at least three years old” and a male, the guides said.
Upon the boat’s return to port, the carcass of the dolphin was handed over to the Coast Guard Administration’s Hualien Fishing Port security office, which forwarded the body, harpoons and bits of leading cable that were still attached to the harpoons to the Hualien Farglory Ocean Park for temporary storage, Chang said.
The office’s deputy director, Lai Ming-chi (賴銘琦), said it would conduct an investigation into which fishing boats in Hualien County are registered to carry harpoon guns in an attempt to find the owner of the harpoons.
Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation office manager Lai Wei-jen (賴威任) said that the harpoons found in the dolphin are commonly used to harpoon swordfish.
Swordfish are not in season and the motives of any fishermen going out to sea with harpoons should be investigated, Lai said, adding that the fishermen might have cut the dolphin loose after realizing they had harpooned the wrong fish.
According to the Council of Agriculture, any person who attempts to hunt or kill a spinner dolphin, which is ranked as a second-class species on the council’s rare animals list, has violated the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) and could be sentenced to between six months and five years in prison, or fined between NT$200,000 and NT$1 million (US$6,206 and US$31,032).
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