origin

Along the coastal area of Tainan, Kaohsiung and Ping-Dong, there are frequent cases of dolphins and whales stranded on shore. These cases accounts for 20~25% of cases in the country, and the number of cases happening in Tainan City and County is within the top three of the entire nation. How this situation should be handled needs to be urgently responded. Since 1996, Professor Wang Chien-Ping of National Cheng Kung University Life Science Department has continuously handled cases of stranded cetaceans of the Southern Coast. And in 2000, he started the rehabilitation of whales and dolphins in the Tainan City Syh-Tsao Wildlife Protection Area, and has since saved seven cetaceans of six different species. In November of 2005, rehabilitation began for a bottlenose dolphin nicknames “Little Bottle”. The process lasted eighteen days, and during this period over 200 volunteers and professionals took care of the dolphin day and night, breaking both the records of survival period and number of volunteers involved. Even though “Little Bottle” still passed away in the end, the volunteers involved have been bonded together by their hearts. In 2006 Professor Wang Chien-Ping gathered the powers of the government, schools and private groups to start the “Taijiang Cetacean Rescue Team”, hoping to do more for the conservation of cetaceans, and have the rescue process forever benefit Taiwan’s environment. In 2008, the “Taiwan Strait Conservation Association” was organized, continuing the care for the rescue of whales and dolphins and the environment.