Although Typhoon Dolphin — whose Chinese name is “white dolphin” (白海豚) — is meandering in the western Pacific Ocean more than 4,000km from Taiwan, it has already caused a stir among Taiwanese netizens, because its Chinese name is associated with Taiwan’s endangered white dolphins (Sousa chinensis), with a conservation proposal for the animal having been rejected by Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) in 2010.
The weather system developed into a tropical storm on Saturday night, following a wandering path southeast of the Guam, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said.
The storm’s erratic approach and name sparked heated discussion among netizens.
Photo: AFP
“White dolphins really can turn. [Wu was a] prophet unjustly blamed,” many netizens said in an apparent attempt to ridicule Wu, who said five years ago that dolphins would avoid the sea near a planned petrochemical plant in Changhua County.
Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co proposed building a plant on reclaimed land on Changhua’s coast in 2010, which environmentalists said would have impeded the passage of the critically endangered dolphins and put their survival at risk.
Estimates said that about 86 dolphins lived along the west coast of Taiwan in 2010.
When asked about concerns over the plant’s possible effect on the dolphins, then-premier Wu said: “Dolphins know how to make a detour around Taichung Harbor; why could they not do the same in Changhua?”
The plan was terminated after it failed an environmental impact review in 2011.
Hong Kong weather authorities added the name to a list used by the World Meteorological Organization to name storms, Weather Forecast Center director Cheng Ming-dean (鄭明典) said, adding that the process has nothing to do with Taiwanese politics.
Since 2000, the organization has asked 14 nations in the northwestern Pacific and South China Sea region — excluding Taiwan — to provide 10 potential storm names each year, Cheng said.
The Tokyo-based Regional Specialized Meteorological Center is responsible for naming weather systems that develop into tropical storms, he said, adding that names of disastrous typhoons can be retired.
CWB forecaster Lin Jhih-hui (林智暉) said there was a tropical storm called Dolphin in 2008, but at the time its Chinese name was translated as duoerfen (多爾芬).
The Chinese mechanism for naming typhoons shifted from transliteration to semantic translation in 2013, leading to the different name for this year’s Typhoon Dolphin.
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