Recent posts on the Matsu's Fish Conservation Union blog have highlighted concerns over a series of marine seismic surveys using a large airgun array, planned for the waters of SE Asia (including the EEZs of Japan, Taiwan, China and the Philippines) from March 21 to July 14 2009 by the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) at Columbia University, as part of the "TAIGER" project. These surveys are believed to have the potential to impact, in some cases quite significantly, on a considerable number of vulnerable, poorly understood or in some cases critically endangered populations of cetaceans in the highly biodiverse yet relatively poorly studied waters of this region.
Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association will deliver its comments, concerns and recommendations* to the US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) later today, before the comment deadline of 1700 EST (Thursday 5 February). Wild at Heart and Matsu’s Fish Conservation Union welcome your support in helping prevent unnecessary and potentially disastrous harm to Taiwan’s critically endangered humpback dolphins as well as a range of other marine mammal populations in the waters of Taiwan, China, Japan and the Philippines by signing on to this letter.
If you would like to sign on, please send an email to: [email protected] before 1600 EST today (5 Feb) giving your full name and organisation/other affiliations you would like to add, and Wild will add your name to the letter. The letter can be viewed by clicking HERE.
Please see the MFCU blog post on this issue for more details, as well as a version of the letter which you can cut, paste and email to NMFS as an alternative.