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Taiwanese Humpback Dolphin Moves toward Endangered Species Act Protection
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Taiwanese Humpback Dolphin Moves toward Endangered Species Act Protection
Listing the species under the Endangered Species Act may be warranted
Contact: Taylor Jones (720) 443-2615 tjones@wildearthguardians.org
Additional Contacts:
Amey Owen, Animal WelfareInstitute, (202) 446-2128, amey@awionline.org
Miyoko Sakashita, Centerfor Biological Diversity, (510) 845-6703, miyoko@biologicaldiversity.org
WASHINGTON— The National MarineFisheries Service today took a step toward protecting rare Taiwanese humpback dolphins, finding that listing the species under the Endangered Species Act maybe warranted. The decision comes in response to a petition from the Animal Welfare Institute, Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians seeking federal protections to help prevent theextinction of a population that now numbers fewer than 75 dolphins. The agencywill now conduct a full review of the status of the species to determinewhether to list it as an endangered species.
“These small dolphins areperilously close to extinction,” said Dr. Naomi Rose, Animal Welfare Institutemarine mammal scientist. “Once they disappear, they are gone forever. It’s anencouraging sign that the U.S. has so quickly concluded that it could help byextending protections to this population.”
Taiwanese humpback dolphins are threatened by pollution, illegal fishing, boattraffic, and development along Taiwan’s densely populated west coast. TheEndangered Species Act could help the dolphin by providing technical expertiseand resources to support Taiwan in conserving the rare dolphin.
“It’s great that these raredolphins are a step closer to endangered species protection. Small cetaceansaround the world are disappearing—baiji in China went extinct, and the vaquitain Mexico and Taiwan’s humpback dolphin are nearing extinction—and we need boldaction to save them,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center forBiological Diversity.
The Taiwanese humpback dolphin,also known in Taiwan as Matsu’s fish, is a biologically and culturallyimportant subspecies of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin. In 2014 the Servicedenied a previous petition to protect the Taiwanese humpback dolphin,concluding that the population was not distinct from the Chinese white dolphin,which swims in deeper waters closer to China’s coastline. New taxonomy studies,however, conclude that the Taiwanese humpback dolphin is a distinct subspecieswith unique characteristics, whose numbers continue to decline to alarminglylow levels.
“Even though more than half ofmarine species may be at risk of extinction by 2100, only about 6 percent ofspecies listed under the ESA are marine,” said Taylor Jones, endangered speciesadvocate at WildEarth Guardians. “To combat the extinction crisis, we need morequick actions like the National Marine Fisheries Service has taken to protectthis rare dolphin.”
The Endangered Species Act is aneffective safety net for imperiled species: It has prevented extinction formore than 90 percent of plants and animals under its care. Scientists estimatethat 227 species would have gone extinct by 2006 if not for the Act’sprotections. Protecting species with global distributions can help focus U.S.resources toward enforcement of international regulations and recovery of thespecies.
Learn more at www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/Taiwanese_humpback_dolphin/.
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The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofitconservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activistsdedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
WildEarth Guardians is a nonprofit conservation organization thatprotects and restores the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of theAmerican West. The organization is working towards Endangered Species Actprotections for diverse marine species through its Wild Oceans campaign.
The Animal Welfare Institute is a nonprofit charitable organizationfounded in 1951 and dedicated to reducing animal suffering caused by people.AWI engages policymakers, scientists, industry, and the public to achievebetter treatment of animals everywhere—in the laboratory, on the farm, incommerce, at home, and in the wild. For more information, visit www.awionline.org.