Superficial appearance has always meant a lot. What is important is the facade, not what is underneath the surface. If it looks pretty, too few seem to care if there is rot below. Unfortunately, what lies beneath the waves around Taiwan’s coastline is becoming very rotten indeed.
Just how perilous the situation is becoming was highlighted on Wednesday by Allen Chen (陳昭倫), a research fellow with the Biodiversity Research Center at Academia Sinica, along with several other environmentalists. Their third annual report on the health of the nation’s major coral reef habitats was every bit as depressing as the previous two had been.
The reefs off the east coast, especially near Jihuei Fishing Port (基翬漁港) in Taitung County and Shanyuan Bay (杉原灣), are being destroyed by shoreline construction projects, with the rate of decline in coral cover reaching “medium” and “high” levels respectively according to international standards, Chen said.
In December last year, the Taiwan Environmental Info Association said its latest survey found that the coral reefs around Siaoliouciou Island (小琉球) off Pingtung County had the lowest living coral coverage in the nation.
In January 2005, the Council of Agriculture said about three-fourths of the nation’s regularly checked coral reefs were deteriorating.
Yet despite such warnings, little has been done except hand-wringing, the commissioning of more surveys, talk about establishing protected marine areas or passing the buck.
Coral reefs are dying for several reasons: global warming, overfishing, pollution, wastewater and the reckless promotion of tourism and shoreline development. However, the common denominator is mankind.
Just as coral reefs are communities, which need fish and other marine life to survive, and in turn sustain a multitude of marine life, it will take a community of activists, bureaucrats and ordinary people to protect the reefs. Part of the problem in Taiwan is that so many government agencies have oversight and regulatory authority: the Fisheries Agency, the forestry and tourism bureaus, the Council of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Administration and more. Each claims it’s doing what it can and that the problem lies elsewhere.
For decades the government has been willing to invest in projects it thinks will boost development and tourism, but it has been largely uninterested in protecting reefs. The nation can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to the problem.
It is often hard to put oneself in someone else’s shoes, but imagine living in a very nice home. Then one day the air starts becoming polluted and even though you try to keep out the dust from the nearby construction site, it still seeps in. Then some distant relatives show up. You don’t mind letting them crash for a while, but they start to eat everything in sight, break the furniture and drop their trash anywhere they like. Pretty soon you are reduced to a small corner of your house, stressed to the max in the face of a relentless horde of slobs. By the time your boorish relatives move on, you have nothing left. You can rebuild, but it will take time — and only if no one else comes to visit for a while.
There is much that can be done on a governmental, civil and individual level. Coastal area construction projects must include an assessment of their impact on the marine environment. More marine reserves must be established. The public should stop patronizing hotels, restaurants and other businesses that degrade the coastline and oceans. Organize beach clean-ups. Stop eating endangered and threatened marine species. Stop polluting.
Just as reefs are built from millions of tiny polyps, all contributing to their environment, it is incumbent on us to work together to build a better environment for ourselves and the coral reefs.
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