Progress report of cetacean research and conservation in Taiwan

Abstract

After national and international media reports of a slaughtering of dolphins at Peng-Hu Island in the spring of 1990, all cetacean species were added to a list of protected wildlife under the Wildlife Conservation Law passed in 1989. This stimulated research and conservation of cetaceans. A group of local scientists began studying cetaceans. They investigated life history, population phylogeny, diet habitat, comparative anatomy, heavy metals, parasite and virus, echolocation, distribution and the impact of whale watching. In the meantime, awareness of cetaceans has risen due to the impacts of many public workshops, symposia and to media coverage of stranding events. In November 1996, a nation-wide organization, the Taiwan Cetacean Stranding Network (TCSN) was organized by government and non-governmental agencies to respond to, and if possible, rescue stranded cetaceans. The first release of a rehabilitated dolphin was accomplished in September 2000. The Taiwan Cetacean Society (TCS) was founded in 1998, and commercial whale/dolphin watching started in 1997. By 2001, the number of commercial watching boats had increased from one to more than 33. The status of cetaceans in Taiwan has grown enormously in the last decade of the 20th century. © 2002, The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science. All rights reserved.