Plight of dolphins major issue amid city expansion (2)

This year, the Guangxi government officially unveiled plans to develop Sanniang Bay into a marine and ecology tourism zone. Its development is an integral part of the Pan-Beibu Gulf Economic Zone mapped out by a national plan released two years ago. The goal is to turn the area into a new growth engine for the country.

Under the national plan, Pan-Beibu Gulf Economic Zone will include a new industrial base with ports, oil refineries, iron and steel and petrochemicals plants, paper mills and other facilities.

Qinzhou's 2010 development plan, which was adopted in March during the annual session of the local people's congress, also stipulates eight ambitious priorities for the city.

It includes construction of a core industrial zone, international port, transport hub and logistics center for trade between China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The plan also aims to turn the city into an international tourist destination that is livable and suitable for business.

To accomplish the goals, officials are going all-out to attract investment and increase its soft power by promoting cultural projects.

Since March, authorities have injected 30.6 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) to kick-start 84 new projects and continue construction on 186 others.

Habitats vanishing

Sanniang Bay is squeezed between Beihai city in the southeast and Qinzhou Bay in the west, the latter of which is now a tax-free zone that is being built into a deep-water port, a manufacturing base for machinery, electronics, textile, construction materials and a logistics center for trading in machinery, high-quality paper, petroleum, edible oil and alloy and chemical products.

"Development is the priority not only in China but also in the whole Southeast Asia and no force can pull it back," said professor Pan. "What I'm working on now is to make sure Chinese white dolphins and their natural habitat will be conserved along with the industrialization."

The Qinzhou government has also vowed to ensure a win-win outcome for both the economy and the rare marine mammals. On Aug 17, Mayor Xiao Yingzi invited Pan and his team to join her on a special tour of Sanniang Bay to choose the site of a new center for research on the Chinese white dolphin.

During the tour and at the dinner party that followed, Xiao repeatedly assured Pan of the city's resolve to protect the dolphins and their sea habitat as Qinzhou gallops into modernization. However, both involve huge challenges.

The number of Chinese white dolphins in the Pearl River Delta, Xiamen harbor and off the southwestern coast of Taiwan has dwindled in the past few decades.

At one time, as many as 20 populations were thought to exist but "only five populations are known to remain today in coastal Chinese waters", according to Lindsay Porter, a marine biologist with the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University in Scotland. "The information we have shows each population has problems that are currently not fully understood."

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