The front lines
“Not long after I started the job, I led some people up Dajianshan on ropes to collect the trash that covered the mountain,” recalls Chen, who says that at the time the mountain was still open to climbing. “Once we finished with the mountain, we went and picked up trash on the beach and the rocks, and then we went into the water to collect litter from the ocean.”
Prior to the rise of environmental consciousness, waste was the biggest enemy of both land and sea ecosystems. “The situation is much better these days: most tourists have become proactive about taking away their trash. Nowadays, Kenting’s most vexing waste issue is ocean waste carried here from other places by wind or currents. For example, typhoons pick up trash from the seas south of us and dump it on our coast, or in the shallow waters near our shores. You could spend a week cleaning up the beaches and the water, and still not get it all,” says a frustrated Chen.
Working with a variety of organizations to protect marine life is another important part of the rangers’ job. Though conflicts inevitably arise between people and the natural world, these days most Taiwanese are respectful of wildlife. The recent efforts to ensure that land crabs are able to safely cross roads during their breeding season are a case in point.
Kenting is home to a wealth of land crabs, with its 65 recorded species ranking number one in the world. From July to November each year, these crabs cross Kenting’s roads on their way to the sea to spawn. Since Kenting launched its “make way for the crabs” program, traffic is stopped for short intervals during designated hours to allow thousands of crabs to cross. During these periods, travelers have the opportunity to witness this grand migration with their own eyes.
Since then, more than 90% of Kenting’s land crabs have made it across the roads to their spawning grounds. And new land-crab species are still being discovered. In 2020 Li Jheng-jhang, a crab expert at National Sun Yat-sen University, published a paper in an international journal describing five new crab species, and recording two others not previously identified in Taiwan. These improvements in the situation of Kenting’s land crabs have led Chen to believe that people really can change their thinking.
These days, even the sky above Kenting has changed. Hsu Shu-kuo explains, “Kenting is an important stopover for more than 200 migratory bird species. With people recognizing that cherishing wildlife means keeping your distance, you can now see tens of thousands of grey-faced buzzards, Chinese sparrowhawks and little egrets wheeling through the sky above Kenting as they prepare to head south for the winter.”
Chen tells us that the hardest part of the rangers’ job is rescuing divers and tourists. Water rescues are especially challenging. “Every few years, someone jumps into the sea from one of the rocks poking out of it, like people do in foreign films, and gets carried away by a rip current.” He also recalls the time that beachgoers ignored a warning announcement about a big wave coming, and 40 or 50 of them were swept out to sea. Chen led the subsequent search and rescue operation.
“KNP introduced a number of safety regulations in the aftermath, and we stringently enforce them to prevent that kind of tragedy from repeating.” Chen, who has lived with the sea for 57 years, says you can never let your guard down with it.
Strong winds and ocean currents bring ocean trash to SPMNP’s waters and islands, so the park’s administrators hire contractors to conduct regular cleanups. (photo by Wu Minghan, courtesy of MNPH)
As part of their duties, SPMNP rangers check on the park’s marine and terrestrial facilities. (photo by Wu Minghan, courtesy of MNPH)