In an effort to protect the newly-rediscovered Chinese crested tern (
"These terns usually inhabit Matsu from April to August, so I've instructed the Coast Guard Administration (海巡署) [in Matsu] to keep all fishing boats away from their habitat," Chang told reporters yesterday afternoon after receiving a briefing on the Lienchang County Government's plan to turn the gull refuges into an eco-tourism attraction.
Because the birds' breeding habits are very easily disturbed by human intrusion, it has been a great challenge for the local government to implement a plan that meets the needs of both conservation and tourism.
PHOTO: AFP
Unexpectedly discovered by a wildlife photographer last June, the Chinese crested tern is distinguished from other greater crested terns by its yellow beak with a black tip. Most experts estimate that there may be less than 100 of the birds alive in the world today, and the species is therefore listed as "critically endangered" in the Birdlife International Red Data Book, Asia 2000.
Since the tern was first given a scientific name Sterna bernsteini in 1863, there have been only five reported sightings of it and the last two -- one in Thailand in 1980 and the other in China's Yellow River delta in 1991 -- have never been confirmed.
When the first four pairs of Chinese crested terns were found in Matsu, they lived with other greater crested terns. This made them very difficult to distinguish, the man who again found them last June, photographer Liang Chieh-te (梁皆得), was quoted as saying. Liang reported that each of the four pairs were found to be incubating a single egg.
Because there is so little information available about the Chinese crested tern, no one can precisely describe its distribution, appearance or behavior. Most greater crested terns, however, are around 45cm long with a distinctive forked tail like a swallow, a crest of black feathers on its head similar to a Mohican haircut, and a yellow beak.
In addition, Birdlife International's editor-in-chief, Richard Thomas, who quite by coincidence led an observation group to Matsu yesterday morning, urged the premier in person to protect the terns, which, he told the premier, "have been listed as one of the most critically endangered species in the world."
In response, Chang told Thomas that efforts to protect the birds are being made by the government, although the Cabinet's main aim is to promote tourism in Matsu.
Chang later said that Matsu's Chinese crested terns have prompted Birdlife International to hold its 2002 international conference on the heavily defended archipelago, where "fifty-year-old traditional village architecture had been remarkably well maintained," he said.
Chang also said that the local cuisine, the island's Buddhist heritage and the opening of some once off-limit front-line forts and military installations, such as the Peihai Tunnel (
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