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Taiwan’s ocean
ecology a mystery to most: survey
MARINE MYSTERY: Many respondents appeared to be
ill-informed about the country’s marine life, which does not bode well for
oceanic conservation efforts
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
Taiwan may be an island, surrounded by sea, but a recent survey has shown that
people in the nation fared poorly in their knowledge of the oceanic environment.
The survey, carried out by Taiwan Environmental Info Association (TEIA), asked
600 fifth and sixth-graders and some adults about their understanding of
Taiwan’s maritime landscape. Results showed that less than 50 percent of
respondents knew that the country’s coastline is 1,600km long and only 43
percent could accurately name Fugueijiao (富貴角) as the northernmost end of
Taiwan.
Meanwhile, only 48 percent knew that the nation’s largest lagoon is located in
Cigu District (七股) in Greater Tainan.
While the heavily polluted algal reef in Taoyuan County’s Guanyin Township (觀音)
has garnered much media attention recently, 75 percent of the respondents did
not know it was the nation’s largest algal reef, and about 40 percent thought it
was in Taitung County.
The survey also found that 70 percent of respondents did not know that Dongsha
Atoll National Park is the nation’s only marine national park. While 95 percent
of the respondents said they like the sea, 50 percent of them reported that they
do not go to the beach regularly.
With yesterday marking World Oceans Day, TEIA secretary-general, Chen Juei-ping
(陳瑞賓), said the survey findings showed that there was an urgency to reinforce
education about Taiwan’s marine environment.
“Most people’s understanding of the sea is still limited to eating seafood and
playing water sports,” he said. “If people fail to possess even a basic
knowledge of the ocean, the nation will lose the opportunity to react in time to
the challenges brought about by climate change.”
As part of its efforts to educate the public about the sea environment, TEIA and
Standard Chartered Bank have started a project to draw a map of the country’s
coastline biodiversity, which is scheduled to be finished in January next year.
TEIA Environmental Trust Center director Sun Hsiu-ju (孫秀如) said all the
information they gather will be put online and will be available to the public
free of charge.
Taiwan’s first coastline map was drawn up by Dutch explorers in 1636 in which
they delineated the shoal and the inter-tidal zone along the nation’s west coast
near Dacheng (大城), Changhua County.
“From the [Dutch] maps, we can see that Taiwan is getting ‘skinnier’ because of
coastline erosion and subsidence,” Sun said.
In related developments, the Fisheries Agency announced yesterday that the
nation now has three levels of sea protection zones. For Type I zones, access is
granted only to scientists and government officials charged with monitoring and
restoring the environment and they are not allowed to damage the area’s
eco-systems in any way.
Those entering Type II zones are banned from engaging in developing any of the
natural or cultural resources and in Type III zones only limited development is
permitted, which must be conducted under the principle of sustainable
development, it said.
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