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Updated Wednesday, July 7, 2010 9:03 am TWN, The China Post news staff Environmentalists to set up trust fund to save dolphinsThey presented a petition to the Ministry of the Interior with signatures from more than 30,000 people supporting the cause. This is the first ever campaign in Taiwan launched by environmentalists to purchase state land to be reserved for the endangered animals in the form of an environmental trust. The organizers also held a rally in front of the Presidential Office in Taipei to urge the government to respect the people's wish to safeguard the rare dolphins, commonly known as “white dolphins” for local people. Under the plan, they will raise about NT$160 million to purchase a tract of 200 hectares of wetland near the estuarine waters of the Choshui River in adjacent Yunlin County. They offer a price of NT$119 per share, which is higher than the market value of NT$100 per square meters for the land appraised by the government. After the government consents to sell the land, supporters will start remitting the funds into a designated bank account as payment, they said. The size of the purchased land can be expanded later on if necessary, they said. People from fishing villages have named the animal as the “Mother Sea-Goddess (Matsu) Fish” — after Matsu, the Sea Goddess — perhaps as result of seeing the dolphins most often around Matsu's birthday in March/April when the seas return to a calmer state. The environmentalists are concerned that the government's possible approval for constructing a giant petrochemical complex to be invested by Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co. (KPTC) in southwestern Taiwan will cause extensive pollution to farmland and agricultural crops while hampering animal conservation in the area. Officials at the Environmental Protection Administration said there is no need to purchase the wetland since a panel conducting the environmental impact evaluation over the KPTC project has included a proposal to leave a safe swimming corridor with a width of 800 meters for the dolphins. The committee, comprised of environmentalists, technologists and representatives of communities, is set to hold a second meeting on the proposal next week, they said. Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here Comments |
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As they have become endangered killed in RIO DE JANEIRO – The bright pink color gives them a striking appearance in the muddy jungle waters. That Amazon river dolphins are also gentle and curious makes them easy targets for nets and harpoons as they swim fearlessly up to fishing boats.
Now, their carcasses are showing up in record numbers on riverbanks, their flesh torn away for fishing bait, causing researchers to warn of a growing threat to a species that has already disappeared in other parts of the world.
The population of the river dolphins will collapse if these fishermen are not stopped from killing them," said Vera da Silva, the top aquatic mammals expert at the government's Institute of Amazonian Research. "We've been studying an area of 11,000 hectares (27,000 acres) for 17 years, and of late the population is dropping 7 percent each year."
That translates to about 1,500 dolphins killed annually in the part of the Mamiraua Reserve of the western Amazon where da Silva studies the mammals.
Less than five agents are tasked with protecting wildlife in a jungle region covering the western two-thirds of Amazonas state, which is more than twice the size of Texas, according to the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), the enforcement arm of the Environment Ministry.
"It's a matter of priority, and right now the government is focusing on deforestation," said Ibama's Andrey Silva. "The killings of these dolphins exists — it's a fact."
The dolphins are attractive to anglers for their fatty flesh that is a highly effective bait for catching a type of catfish called piracatinga.
Consumption in neighboring Colombia is driving the slaughter. Some 884 tons of the fish came from Brazil in 2007, according to the Colombian Institute for Rural Development. That jumped to 1,430 tons in 2008 and spiked to 2,153 tons in 2009.
Growing up to 8 feet (2.5 meters) long and weighing as much as 400 pounds (180 kilograms), Amazon river dolphins are the largest of four species known to exist in South America and Asia.
Their genetic siblings have already died off elsewhere: The Yangzte river dolphin in China was declared functionally extinct in 2006, the victim of pollution, overfishing and increased boat traffic.
Meanwhile, the International Union of Conservation of Nature lists the Ganges river dolphin in India as endangered, and the Irrawaddy river dolphin in Bangladesh as vulnerable.
"Killing the dolphins is a fast and easy way for the fisherman to make money. It costs nothing but time," Vera da Silva said. "It's ugly because these dolphins have a folkloric value in the Amazon, and all that is disappearing for the sake of using them as bait."
We need to stop this killing & save these magnificent, beautiful dolphins before it is too late!