The Taiwan Environmental Information Agency’s (TEIA) 2011 report on Taiwan’s coral reefs released last Monday showed that the coral reefs at Bitoujiao in New Taipei City’s Ruifang District have a mean cover of 14 percent and that they are in the worst condition. The report says that although most coral reefs in Taiwan are in good condition, indicator fish species are still quite sparse. Thus, they have called on the government to make the area a protected ocean area as soon as possible in order to save the ocean’s ecological environment.
TEIA Secretary General Chen Jui-pin said that in 2003 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) urged all nations to designate 12 percent of their ocean territory as protected areas, and that they should be category I areas according to the organization’s Protected Area Management Categories System. However, only six percent of Taiwan’s oceanic territory is currently designated as protected areas, and the only area that qualifies as a category I area according to IUCN standards is the Dongsha Atoll National Park and Ching Bay in the Penghu Islands where fishing is banned.
Chen also said that as of 2009, when they began conducting examinations of coral reefs in Taiwan, the only area where larger commercial fish species and invertebrates have been easily observed is at Yehliu Geopark in New Taipei City, but the park is only designated a protected area as a geological park. As efficient as it is already, if it could be designated as a category I protected area according to the IUCN, it would increase the diversity among species there and help the rate of growth and breeding in the area, which would also indirectly benefit fishermen.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY KYLE JEFFCOAT)
Photo courtesy of Academia Sinica’s Biodiversity Research Center
照片: 中研院生物多樣性中心提供
台灣環境資訊協會上週一公布二○一一年珊瑚礁總體檢報告,鼻頭角珊瑚覆蓋率約百分之十四,狀況最差。報告指出,雖然大多數珊瑚礁狀況尚可,但指標性魚種數量稀少,呼籲政府儘速劃設海洋保護區,搶救海洋生態。
台灣環境資訊協會秘書長陳瑞賓表示,二○○三年世界自然保育聯盟(IUCN)籲請各國在二○一二年前將百分之十二領海面積劃入保護區,且應屬於IUCN保護區分類系統中第I類,我國迄今僅不到百分之六領海面積劃入保護區,真正符合IUCN第I類標準僅有東沙海洋國家公園及澎湖青灣內灣禁漁區。
陳瑞賓表示,二○○九年起進行珊瑚礁體檢,發現全台僅新北市野柳容易觀察到大型經濟魚種及無脊椎動物,野柳僅劃為地質公園保護區,成效已經這麼好,如能劃設IUCN第I類保護區,對於增加物種多樣性、成長率及繁殖量將是一大助益,漁民也可間接受益。
(自由時報記者劉力仁)
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