Animal rights advocates on Thursday called on the government to consider the needs of land crabs before planning construction projects or maintenance work, as crabs in Kenting National Park (墾丁國家公園) are often at risk when they cross Provincial Highway 26 to lay eggs in the ocean.
New Power Party Chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) held a news conference to warn about the issue as the land crab breeding season approaches.
“Ecological assessment has been taken more seriously than before for road and river improvement projects, but still has room for improvement,” Chen said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
For instance, a road construction project led by the Directorate-General of Highways Third Maintenance Office this year blocked the crabs’ migration route, she said.
Former Taiwan Environmental Protection Union Pingtung office director Hung Hui-hsiang (洪輝祥) said that Kenting is the habitat of most species of land crabs, but it has been ruined by the highway.
Studies conducted by Liu Hung-chang (劉烘昌), a Taiwanese land crab specialist, showed that between October 2018 and October 2019, 3,210 land crabs died on the 4km section between Banana Bay (香蕉灣) and Shadao (砂島). Forty-five percent of those killed were female crabs carrying eggs.
Hung said that the retaining walls and gutters along the highway, the highest rising 4m, built by the Directorate-General of Highways were “ridiculous” since they were short and easily crossed by the crabs.
Environmental groups are hoping the Banana Bay and the Gangkou River (港口溪) estuary sections of the highway can be elevated to create ecological corridors for the crabs, Taiwan Animal Protection Monitor Network secretary-general Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) said, adding that it would not be too expensive.
However, elevating the highway would only have limited effect, as local residents still need to use the road daily, Liu said.
Even the ecological corridors built for the famous red crabs on Christmas Island, an Australian territory northwest of the main continent, have failed, Liu said, suggesting that trial corridors should be built first to explore the feasibility of the project.
The Soil and Water Conservation Bureau is looking to lower or tear down the retaining walls along the Banana Bay section or replace them with temporary installations, Kenting National Park land crab researcher Li Jheng-jhang (李政璋) said.
Directorate-General of Highways deputy head engineer Chen Chin-fa (陳進發) said that it would task the Third Maintenance Office to improve the walls and gutters, and ask the office to undertake a thorough assessment along ecologically sensitive sections prior to construction.
The agency presently has no plans to elevate sections of the highway as a consensus has yet to be reached on the issue, he said, but promised to build a trial corridor this year.
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