A group of environmental protection activists Wednesday urged the government to step up efforts to protect Chinese white dolphins, a species which is already endangered. Led by Tsai Chia-yang, chairman of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union Changhua division, the activists staged a protest in front of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), calling for the government to shelve plans to build a naphtha cracking plant near the mouth of the central Jhuoshuei River. The petrochemical complex, planned by partially state-owned Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co., is expected to produce 12 million tons of carbon dioxide a year and would raise the temperature of the sea near the mouth of the river where the dolphins live, Tsai said. Tsai said the warming effect is likely to push the dolphins toward extinction as the animals rarely stray far from their habitat. Tsai said the number of Chinese white dolphins has fallen to fewer than 100 and the United Nations has urged immediate efforts to protect the animal after widespread development brought 40 years of pollution, threatening its habitat. He said the EPA needs to conduct further research on the ecology of Chinese white dolphins, assessing how further pollution in the Jhuoshuei River will affect the animal's breeding and feeding habits. He added that without a careful environmental assessment, the construction of the cracker plant could be catastrophic for the dolphins. 