Report on the results of Kenting National Park HQ’s sea clean up activity

Kenting National Park has Taiwan’s richest coral reef ecology. The coast has a number of coral reefs and the ocean and land form a special geographical environment and ecosystem. To clean up the coral reef ecosystem and the habitats of other creatures in the waters off Kenting National Park, the park HQ organized the 2008 sea clean up activity. In total, 1620 kg of trash was collected from the sea bed. The opportunity was also taken to observe the marine ecology and implement related marine conservation measures with the aim of providing a high-quality travel and water-based recreation environment for visitors and allow the pubic to understand the importance of habitat conservation and the protection of bio-diversity.

The clean-up activity found that Kenting’s coastal water faces new crises in the shape of increased water cloudiness and eutrophication. According to on-site estimates and referring to long-term monitoring data, the reason for the new crises is thought to be “visitor number”. This should be taken into account when making follow-up plans, setting the marine conservation monitoring plan and discussing “visitor number and environmental and ecological capacity” related issues.

Translated by：Kevin Lax
Source：Kenting National Park Headquarters