Taiwan Today

The graceful, slow-moving whale shark is the largest fish in the ocean. It has a unique checkerboard pattern on its back made up of creamy white spots, pale horizontal and vertical stripes, and a white underbelly. The species feeds on plankton and other small organisms filtered through its gills, making it one of only three known sharks that feed in that manner, along with the basking shark and the megamouth shark.

The whale shark is a highly migratory species inhabiting tropical and warm waters, and it has long been a target of fishermen throughout Asia. The creatures are hunted primarily for their fins and meat (for human consumption), oil (for waterproofing fishing boat hulls) and skin (for leather products). Shark fin soup, in particular, is usually served at upscale Chinese restaurants or banquets to impress guests.

The combination of overfishing, environmental damage and the animal’s biological characteristics, including slow growth, late maturity (at around 30 years of age) and low reproduction rate, has meant that whale shark populations have decreased sharply in the last decade. Recent estimates suggest that Taiwan’s whale shark population is beginning to recover, however, thanks to conservation efforts.

Shih Chuan-fa (釋傳法), secretary-general of the Taipei-based animal protection group, Life Conservationist Association (LCA), cites statistics released by the World Wildlife Fund that report more than 180 species of sharks, about one-third of their total number, are at risk of extinction. Shih says this is partly due to the practice of shark finning by fishermen to cater for demand from Chinese communities worldwide. “Eating shark fins is neither ‘necessary’ nor conducive to health, given their low nutritional value,” Shih says. “Some diners eat fins just to gratify their vanity; to show off their wealth because they can afford an expensive dish. They’re probably not aware that their eating habits have caused immense injury and pain to sharks and are having a devastating effect on their survival and the whole ecological system as well.”

Sharks, Shih explains, are apex predators—they are at the top of the ocean food chain and prey upon healthy animals, thus ensuring diversity and population control. If they were eliminated, an ecological imbalance would occur.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) placed the whale shark on its Red List of Threatened Species by registering it as “vulnerable” in 2000. The IUCN is the world’s largest environmental network and its efforts include governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working in partnership to assess the conservation status of species and find pragmatic solutions to the most pressing environmental challenges.

In 2002, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement that identifies species at risk, also gave critical support to whale shark conservation by listing the species in Appendix II of the convention, meaning the sharks are threatened with extinction if trade is not subject to strict regulation. Accordingly, before they issue export permits, fishing states that are signatories to the convention are required to demonstrate through empirical evidence that international trade does not threaten local populations of the fish.

Although Taiwan is not a signatory to the convention, experts from academia, the government and conservation groups have collaborated since the early 2000s to study and protect whale sharks. The group includes National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU) in Keelung, northern Taiwan, the Fisheries Agency under the Cabinet-level Council of Agriculture (COA) and NGOs such as the LCA and Germany-based Wildlife 21 International.

Joung Shoou-jeng (莊守正), an associate professor at NTOU’s Department of Environmental Biology and Fisheries Science, for one, has devoted himself to whale shark research for some 10 years. He says in Taiwan, whale sharks used to be caught commercially by harpoon and set net, with a small portion harvested by longline and gillnet fishing.

The sharks are nicknamed tuagong sua in Taiwanese, which means “big dumb sharks,” by local fishermen given their massive size, docile behavior and slow swimming speed. They are also known as tofu sharks because their flesh is pure white and softer than other commercial shark meat.

The flesh of the whale shark, Joung says, actually has a slight smell of ammonia and must be cooked with seasonings to make it palatable. As such, although fishing for whale sharks was previously legal, they were not always the target species for Taiwanese fishermen, but oftentimes were caught as bycatch in tuna fishing, as the presence of the sharks naturally causes tuna and other fish to school.

In 1996, the Fisheries Agency engaged Joung and other NTOU faculty members to survey local fishery resources, including the number of whale sharks caught annually around Taiwan. Through this work, Joung found fewer whale sharks being caught, with the figure falling from 272 in 1996 to just 100 in 2001. That drop reflected a general decline in Taiwan’s whale shark population, he says. The results of the surveys propelled the Fisheries Agency to form a working group, composed of government officials, researchers and fishing industry representatives, to come up with conservation and management plans for the species.

The group’s first task was to establish a reporting system for whale shark catches, a scheme it launched in July 2001. The system comprised mandatory reporting of any whale sharks caught including their length, weight and sex, together with the location and time of the capture. At the same time, anyone who helped release a whale shark caught in a set net back into the wild could apply for a cash payment of NT$30,000 (US$1,000).

Reducing Catches

The Fisheries Agency began to regulate the numbers of whale sharks caught in 2002 by introducing a fishing quota of 80 whale sharks per year in 2003 and 2004, which was then slashed to 65 sharks in 2005 and 60 in 2006. In 2007, the quota was reduced to 30 while a minimum length requirement of 4 meters was imposed.

The government placed a complete ban on the fishing, sale, possession, import and export of whale sharks or whale shark meat in 2008, partly in response to calls from conservation groups including the LCA and Wildlife 21 International. Violators face one to three years in prison and a fine of NT$30,000–$150,000 (US$1,000–$5,000).

“Whale sharks are an important index of marine ecosystem health. The international trade of shark fins, however, threatens their existence,” says Rebecca Lisson (陳志孝), executive director of Wildlife 21 International. “We have to take action before it is too late. That’s why I am anxious to promote their conservation, and I’m glad that Taiwan’s government has given legal protection to whale sharks.”

Lisson, who is a Taiwan national, but currently resides in Germany, has been involved in international wildlife protection and investigation in the trade of endangered species since 1990. She was presented with a Clark R. Bavin Law Enforcement Award at a CITES conference in 1994 for her achievements in combating crimes against wildlife, and founded the Asian Conservation Awareness Program (ACAP) in Taiwan in cooperation with the LCA in the late 1990s.

Kuo Chin-lau (郭慶老), deputy director-general of the Fisheries Agency, says sharks are a commercial fishing resource, but they should be managed carefully. It is thus important for the government to regulate commercial fishing operations to ensure responsible fishing practices and the proper treatment of the marine ecosystem around the island.

Given that whale sharks are listed by CITES as a threatened species, Taiwan has implemented a comprehensive management scheme to protect them, Kuo says. “We communicated with local fishermen about the threatened status of whale sharks and asked for their participation in government-led research projects and the reporting system. We also reduced the total allowable catch year by year, so that we were eventually able to ban whale shark fishing without encountering much resistance,” Kuo says. “This process is a good example for us to emulate in our management of other species in need of protection.”

The Fisheries Agency also invites experts and scholars to lecture at elementary and high schools about marine conservation and offers training programs to school teachers. The agency’s deputy director-general says that conservation education starting in primary school is one of the most effective ways to develop public awareness about environmental and wildlife protection.

Shih Chuan-fa of the LCA says her association educates members of the public about the species by holding exhibitions and producing teaching materials such as animations and publications to be used in schools.

At the same time, international research on whale sharks, such as investigating their biology and migration patterns, remains inadequate, Kuo says. In order to collect more data, the Fisheries Agency entrusted NTOU to carry out whale shark tagging in 2002. A total of 353 whale sharks were tagged including 323 with conventional tags and 30 with satellite tags. Researchers received data from nine of the satellite tracking devices that showed the creatures’ migration routes, the depths to which they dove and their preferred environments.

Joung Shoou-jeng says several countries including Australia, Mexico, the Philippines and the United States have also conducted whale shark tagging. He hopes these countries will exchange such information with Taiwan and one another as this kind of international cooperation could create a clearer picture about the ecology, distribution and movement of whale sharks.

Lisson says dozens of shark species, including whale sharks, aggregate seasonally in Taiwan’s waters. Such diversity makes Taiwan an ideal place to do research about sharks. Wildlife 21 International has teamed up with NTOU and the LCA to launch a second tagging project, which aims to satellite-tag and track 100 whale sharks. The project began in October 2011 and will run until 2016.

“The tagging program is designed to build an international whale shark DNA research and image database, while bringing awareness to the species’ conservation,” Lisson explains. “We hope this scheme, which started in Taiwan, will expand to become a global project through the participation of members of the public and international NGOs and form an international research and protection network for the threatened species.”

In addition to raising funds—one satellite tag costs about US$20,000—Lisson says she hopes to invite 100 prominent public figures from various fields including the arts, business, journalism and politics to take part in the tagging events, in order to gain greater publicity for the conservation effort. She also plans to produce a documentary film about the project. Lisson encourages Taiwanese enterprises to participate in the tagging program, saying that the project could boost a company’s corporate image, as well as Taiwan’s international profile.

The COA’s Fisheries Agency will support the satellite-tagging program by donating five tags during the five-year period. It will also subsidize the shark research center that was set up at NTOU in 2011 to implement the tagging project and conduct studies of fisheries science in general and shark biology in particular. In turn, Joung hopes that the research center can contribute to improving the government’s management of fishery resources. He adds that since the government-funded projects began in 1996, NTOU has received more than NT$50 million (US$1.7 million) to conduct research on whale sharks. Such strong government support for a particular species is rare in Taiwan and shows the level of commitment to its conservation, he says.

Getting Results

Joung says currently there are an estimated 300 whale sharks in waters off Taiwan, compared with 100 before the fishing ban took effect in 2008—evidence that the move has been helpful in preserving the species. Lisson says the good results reflect the government’s determination to protect whale sharks through the strict enforcement of regulations. Moreover, she says local citizens have become increasingly aware of the importance of marine conservation in recent years. “Whale sharks are a success story of environmental policymaking that at the same time reflects a budding spirit of conservation among Taiwanese,” she says. “Given what it has accomplished and with its ongoing efforts, I hope that Taiwan can play a leading role in international whale shark research and protection.”

Several other Asian countries have banned commercial fishing of whale sharks, including the Maldives in 1995, the Philippines in 1998 and India in 2001, the LCA’s Shih says. She adds that those countries have taken the opportunity to develop whale shark-related ecotourism, a move that Taiwan could emulate. “The government has responded to our appeal to formulate laws to protect whale sharks. Still, we hope that more can be done,” she says. “Marine conservation has become an international trend, and the development of ecotourism is a good approach to ensuring the conservation and utilization of fishery resources at sustainable levels.”

Likewise, Joung says several countries such as Australia, Belize, the Maldives, the Philippines and Thailand use whale sharks as a draw to promote recreational activities like diving, and are thereby able to rake in handsome revenues. He lists Taiwan’s eastern coast and the outlying islands of Penghu as potential sites to develop whale shark tourism.

Lisson of Wildlife 21 International says involvement in wildlife conservation is a meaningful mission on many levels. “What we’ve been doing not only changes the fate of the animals, but also our way of thinking. It enables us to have a better understanding of the meaning of life,” she says. “At the same time, we’re all obligated to conserve marine resources to ensure that they will continue to exist for centuries to come.”

Write to Kelly Her at kelly@mail.gio.gov.tw