June 24, 2009

In response to the letter on 16 June 2009 from Wild at Heart expressing concern over the bombardment by Taiwan’s military of critically endangered humpback dolphin habitat off the coast of central Taiwan the Ministry of National Defense has notified Wild that it has asked a number of departments within the MND, including the command headquarters of the army, navy and airforce to review the materials concerning the welfare of dolphins and the livelihoods of fishers and respond to the Department of Resources MND by 30 June 2009.

Photo: Eastern Taiwan Strait (=western Taiwan) humpback dolphins

In the meantime Wild has arranged to meet with representatives of the MND to discuss the matter of impact mitigation and explore possibilities of introducing best practices and alternatives to these exercises.

Also see:
Taiwan military fires directly into critically endangered humpback dolphin habitat 17 June

Military Exercise at Daan River Mouth 4 June

June 17, 2009

Kyodo News reported today:

“Taiwan's military fired grenades and mortar shells into a key habitat for endangered dolphins during live-fire exercises Wednesday, an environmental protection group said.

A dwindling population of Chinese white dolphins [humpback dolphins] was at risk from howitzers in the Da-an River Estuary on Taiwan's west coast, a major habitat for the dolphins, the Taipei-based Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association said.

''The military is not showing any regard for the welfare of this critically endangered group of dolphins,'' said Christina Macfarquhar, a researcher at Wild at Heart....

[Other than the fact that the military was firing in that area, equally disturbing was the military’s response to questions from Kyodo...]

“...Asked for comment, military media liaison officer Col. Ben Wang confirmed the exercises, saying shells had been fired into the water.

But he said he was unaware of concerns about the dolphins.

''Taiwan has Chinese white dolphins?'' he said.

''This isn't the first time we've conducted these exercises -- these are regular maneuvers,'' he added.

Macfarquhar said the military had participated in Cabinet-level meetings on protecting the dolphins, ''so they should be aware of this issue.''

''The fact that they're firing shells right into the habitat shows how much attention they've paid to it,'' she added.

(Click here for the full article)

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Note from Wild:

In fact, the National Council for Sustainable Development (under the Executive branch of the government) has now held two interagency meetings on “Action to Protect Taiwan’s Humpback Dolphin Population” (on 29 August 2008 and 26 February 2009) and representatives from the Ministry of National Defense attended both of them and made statements suggesting that military units were being required to reduce the impact of live firing exercises on the dolphins. But judging by today’s display this does not include avoiding firing right into their habitat.

June 10, 2009

While the rest of the world is concerned with climate destabilization and governments are taking pains to find ways of addressing water resource utilization, we see our Taiwan government engaged in quite a fierce shadow boxing match while at the same time sputtering out all manner of vague and insignificant carbon reduction measures. We have been told to take off our heavy clothes, we have been excoriated to carry our own drinking cups and chopsticks, and we even get a few little subsidies for conserving some electricity, buying more stuff, buying a new car, or cutting down on our personal water consumption.

May 19, 2009

See the Save the Humpback dolphin blog* for recent images of Taichung coal-fired power plant (the biggest CO₂-emitting power plant in the world), whose effluent flows into humpback dolphin habitat.

Proponents of more coal-fired power plants on the coast adjacent to the dolphins' habitat argue that, because the dolphins still swim in these waters, additional effluent from more coal-fired power plants will not affect them. In fact, the dolphins are restricted to these waters--they have no where else to go, no matter how much we degrade their home.

Photo: Effluent from the world's #1 CO₂
emitting power plant, Taichung. 10.5.09.

* The Save the humpback dolphin blog is run by Matsu's Fish Conservation Union, a coalition of Taiwanese environmental NGOs working to protect Taiwan's humpback dolphins, otherwise known as "Matsu's Fish". The member groups are: Taiwan Academy of Ecology; Taiwan Sustainable Union; Taiwan Environmental Protection Union; Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association; Wild Bird Society of Yunlin and Changhua Coast Conservation Action.