While an Oscar award-winning documentary has recently put Japan in hot water over its dolphin hunting, Taiwan’s endangered white dolphins are on the verge of extinction because their natural habitat is disappearing as a result of severe environmental degradation, a wildlife conservationist said on Sunday.
Gan Chen-yi (甘宸宜), secretary of the non-profit Matsu’s Fish Conservation Union, said the number of white dolphins, also known as Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins — a species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as “critically endangered” in 2008 — now stands at only between 60 and 90 off the west coast.
“The Taiwanese white dolphin might become extinct within 10 years if industrial development near the estuary of the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪) is not halted,” said Gan, who doubles as secretary of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union.
Gan said there was previously believed to be approximately 200 of the mammals about 3km to 5km off the west coast between Miaoli and Tainan counties between 2004 and 2006.
That number had fallen to no more than 100 by 2007, indicating that various industrial and harbor development projects along the western coastline have seriously polluted the dolphin’s natural habitat, Gan said.
“The issue is becoming even more pressing, as the north side of the Jhuoshuei River estuary between the counties of Changhua and Yunlin has been zoned as a development area for a new naphtha cracking plant,” she said.
She called on the public to purchase public land near the estuary and put that land into trust in an effort to protect the critically endangered species.
Meanwhile, Tung Gene-sheng (董景生), chairman of the Taipei-based Taiwan Environmental Information Center, said his office has invited Oliver Maurice, an official with the International National Trust Organization, to come to Taiwan to help residents buy public land.
Tung said according to the center’s plan, a corridor of 200 hectares of land along the estuary would need to be purchased in the first phase of the project, with each unit of 1m² zoned as one share and selling at a cost of NT$119.
A trust fund would be created through the land sales, Tung said, adding that the drive was expected to take 90 days.
White dolphins have an extremely low birth rate and a life span of 30 to 40 years. It takes 10 to 12 years for them to reach sexual maturity and a female dolphin gives birth only once every three to four years, Tung said.
The humpback dolphins are called “Matsu’s fish” by local fishermen because they are seen most frequently between March and April, when the birthday of Matsu, the Chinese goddess of the sea, is celebrated in Taiwan.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to