The endangered right porpoise, a Class I protected species, stranded and died at Potou Fishing Port in Hsinchu County on the 17th. It was transferred to the Taijiang Cetacean Rescue Center for autopsy and analysis. The Taijiang Cetacean Rescue Center will preserve it as a cetacean specimen under the Xinhua County Government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The right porpoise, also known as the \"sea monk\" or \"river dolphin,\" is distributed from the Persian Gulf in the west to Japan in the east. It inhabits sandy seabeds with a depth of 50 meters or less and is rarely seen more than 5 kilometers offshore, making it a near-shore resident dolphin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fan Kuo-chuan, director of the Agriculture Bureau of Hsinchu County Government, stated that six cetaceans have stranded in the waters off Potou Fishing Port in Hsinchu County in the past year. These include a bottlenose dolphin, a pygmy sperm whale, a fin whale, a melon-headed whale, and the right porpoise that stranded and died yesterday. The right porpoise is listed as a Class I endangered species, and the Agriculture Bureau of Hsinchu County Government is taking this very seriously. They immediately contacted the Taijiang Cetacean Rescue Center and Professor Wang Chien-ping of the Department of Life Sciences at National Cheng Kung University to assist in the investigation. Preliminary findings indicate that it was a juvenile male whale, with undigested fish pieces and plastic objects in its stomach and intestines. It is believed that it was feeding before death, and the plastic objects likely caused intestinal obstruction, leading to its demise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n