When we speak of Penghu, what comes to mind is a green sea under a blue sky and a sandy beach bathed in sunshine. But this is Penghu in summer. Its landscape in winter is quite different, with the chilly northeastern monsoon, occasional drizzles and powerful surges of the sea. As a result, the number of tourists to Penghu drops in winter.
To attract more visitors to Penghu year round, a number of large-scale development projects have been proposed -- from casinos to building international resorts -- aimed at creating a blueprint for these pearls of the Taiwan Strait.
Take two newly-proposed development projects as examples. One is a cultured pearl museum; the other is a marine resort hotel. I believe these two projects are tailor-made for Penghu and can bring limitless business opportunities. However, as a researcher of the coral reefs in the waters surrounding the Penghu Archipelago, I cannot help but worry about the reefs in Green Bay
Green Bay is unfamiliar to most people in Taiwan; even some Penghu residents do not know the area. It is a natural inlet stretching from the west of Shih-lishamao Mountain (
The bay's ecosystem is mainly composed of coral reefs, which are a habitat for many species of fish, shrimps, crabs and sea shells. These reefs are certainly worth preserving.
The site eyed by two major conglomerates is located on a 4.6-hectare tract of marine reclamation land built by the Council of Agriculture (COA,
The profits of large-scale development projects may be appealing, but how many people know that Green Bay's coral reefs are unique among the various reefs of Taiwan?
Statistics illustrate the reefs' uniqueness. According to a 1993 survey by the Academia Sinica's Institute of Zoology
I myself have discovered three rare species of coral in Green Bay. These corals reside only in the waters of Penghu, mostly in the bay. A survey conducted by a research team led by Sung Ko-yi
Global climate change has raised the temperature of the sea, seriously damaging the reef's eco-system. Unfortunately, pearls and a marine resort hotel will also affect the bay's rich coral reef system, given the stringent environmental conditions required by the coral to survive.
I believe that there must be somewhere better than Green Bay to build a cultured pearl museum or an international resort.
As for the land reclaimed by the COA, I suggest that the council work with the Fisheries Administration, the Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute and the Penghu Aquarium Museum to establish a marine biology breeding center.
These facilities should conduct breeding and transplantation efforts -- using Taiwan's excellent fishery technologies -- for species facing extinction, such as the tripneustes urchin, reef-building corals and giant clams, as well as the tape clam, an endangered species with a high economic value.
The Penghu county government is one of the local governments that has devoted itself to marine life preservation.
On the crossroads between the tourism development and coral reef preservation, I would like to call on the county government to work with the central government to preserve Green Bay and the future of Taiwan's coral reefs.
Chen Chao-lun is a deputy research fellow at the Institute of Zoology of the Academia Sinica.
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