Taiwan sits where the Kuroshio Current meets the continental shelf, and its waters are richly productive. Long-term surveys have recorded about 30 cetacean species around the island — nearly a third of the world’s kinds, from coastal white dolphins to deep-sea sperm whales. In 2025 alone, 21 species were recorded stranding.
Image source: Talia Cohen / Unsplash
A subspecies found only along Taiwan’s west coast, its pink-white figure is known locally as the “Matsu fish”. Scholars estimate fewer than 50 remain, declining about 3–4% a year — Taiwan’s most urgent marine conservation case.
A small, dorsal-fin-less porpoise of shallow coastal waters. Records once grouped broadly as “finless porpoise” are separated by species here.
Also dorsal-fin-less, but a separate species from the Indo-Pacific finless porpoise. Similar common names make the scientific name important when reading sighting or stranding records.
One of the most familiar dolphins. It resembles the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin but is a separate species, so records should retain the scientific name.
Similar in appearance to the common bottlenose dolphin, but a separate species. Sighting and stranding records should retain the scientific name.
Taiwan’s whale-watching community often calls it the “patterned dolphin” or “Li’s dolphin”. Fishers call it tuā-thâu-á for its blunt, rounded head; older animals turn grey-white as scars accumulate and are also known as huê-ê-siūnn-thâu, evoking a bright bald monk at the surface.
A member of the dwarf sperm whale family and a separate species from the similarly named dwarf sperm whale. Taiwan’s 2025 cetacean stranding summary recorded four individuals, making the scientific name important for identification.
A beaked whale adapted to deep diving and generally found in deeper waters. Taiwan’s 2025 cetacean stranding summary recorded three individuals; professional confirmation is important because visual identification can be difficult.
Bycatch, strikes, noise, debris — most threats trace back to human activity. Knowing them is the first step to reducing the harm.
Entanglement in nets, set nets and fishing gear is the most direct threat to coastal dolphins, often causing drowning or severe injuries.
Busy shipping lanes and high-speed vessels cause strike injuries that repeatedly become infected, and disturb normal activity and breeding.
Piling, sonar and ship noise interfere with animals that navigate and communicate by sound. Studies show white dolphins react to noise from as far as 60–70 km away.
Swallowed plastic and derelict fishing gear block or pierce the digestive tract. Sea turtles under the same rescue network are routinely found with hooks and man-made objects inside.
Land reclamation, development and offshore construction squeeze the coastal habitat; the white dolphin’s core habitat is especially fragile.
Sewage and chemicals flow from land into the sea, weakening cetacean immune systems and making them more vulnerable to disease.
The ocean and the land were never two separate worlds. Research finds bacteria in stranded cetaceans matching land sewage; even Toxoplasma from cat litter can wash into the sea and infect them. Reducing pollution and handling waste properly is protecting marine life far away.
Rescue is not something one agency can do. The Ocean Conservation Administration acts as the integration core, linking the Coast Guard, local governments, academic cetacean centers, veterinarians and volunteer groups into the Marine Animal Rescue Network (MARN). When a report comes in, these roles relay to the same shoreline.
In February 2026, eleven pygmy killer whales stranded together at Haikou fishing port in Checheng, Pingtung. Local rescue associations, release boats and response teams — over 60 people — lifted them one by one safely onto fishing boats with cranes and excavators. Medical teams drew blood on site, confirmed the animals were stable, and headed out to sea: seven were successfully released, the highest release count of any recent mass-stranding rescue.
On site there is rarely a “perfect” strategy — only the best available choice, made on professional judgment in the moment. Sometimes that means hard trade-offs: to make limited rescue capacity count, teams may have to let go of individuals beyond saving and pour the most resources and time into the lives that still have a chance. That is not coldness; it is the most responsible judgment life can be given under limited resources. Understanding and trusting the professionals on the front line is part of protecting these animals too.
Many dolphins are intensely social animals with tight bonds between companions. When one individual strands through injury or illness, the others often follow its calls and refuse to leave — and the whole group ends up trapped together. That is a major cause of mass strandings, and why rescues often need to stabilize the entire group and release them together, as with these eleven pygmy killer whales.
Photo-ID catalogues, at-sea surveys, scientific sampling and pathology — these numbers are the front line’s day-after-day accumulation, and the foundation of conservation decisions.