The frequency of offshore / inshore cetaceans seen

Flagship species, umbrella species, endangered species, and other important economic species have important ecology status and should be monitored and protected as a priority.

Visualization

沿近海鯨豚族群量變化

橫軸標籤

年份（年）

縱軸標籤

該年累積目擊數量（隻）

指標圖表樣式

line

Indicator Details

Original indicator name: The population size of cetaceans in inshorel and offshore of Taiwan

Themes

Abundance trends of selected taxa

PSBR model type

State (S)

Corresponding targets

Aichi Biodiversity Targets

Target 12 By 2020 the extinction of known threatened species has been prevented and their conservation status, particularly of those most in decline, has been improved and sustained.

Background

Due to the Kuroshio Current, the east water of Taiwan has become a fishing ground and attracted whales and dolphins to forage. Because the cetaceans are the top consumers in the food chain of local marine areas, maintaining a large cetacean population requires a sufficient amount and types of fish, shrimp, shellfish, and plankton as their food resources. Therefore, the population size of cetaceans is closely related to the health of the ocean. There are 27 species of cetaceans in Taiwan, accounting for about one-third of the 81 species in the world. Forestry Bureau, Council of Agriculture, listed all cetacean species as protected wild animals in accordance with the Wildlife Conservation Act 1995 and established the Marine Animal Rescue Network (MARN) for cetaceans rescue. However, the population size is still affected by human activities such as whale-watching, marine debris pollution, improper fishing methods, illegal spearfishing, and smuggling, etc..

Definition and Calculation

Through the cooperation between Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation and the whale/dolphin-watching industry, we've trained marine tour guides each year to educate visitors on the boats, conducted survey on cetaceans along with the tour boats, and record number of cetaceans seen in the inshore and offshore waters.
Choose the most frequently seen species to present the variations in individual species, which include Risso's Dolphin (Grampus griseus), spinner dolphin(Stenella longirostris), pantropical spotted dolphin(Stenella attenuata), Fraser's dolphin(Lagenodelphis hosei), Common bottlenose dolphin(Tursiops truncatus).

Updates

Tally of cetaceans seen (1998-2015)

Data Management Authorities

Fisheries Agency, Council of Agriculture, Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation

Data Source / URL

Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation

Data Development Status

II-1

Data Providers