Wildlife protection activists urged the government Monday to designate a habitat for Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins living off the nation's west coast that are threatened by pollution. At a news conference, the activists also called on the government to address potential pollution and other problems that could result from a project launched by the Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Corp., a subsidiary of CPC Taiwan Corp, to build refineries on coastal wetland in Dacheng Township, Changhua County near the estuary of the Jhuoshuei River. The waters along the Changhua coast are home to a dwindling population of the dolphins, which are considered a national treasure by many Taiwanese. Environmentalists say the planned refineries will block the migration routes of many fish that make up the bulk of the dolphins' diets. According to Matsu's Fish Conservation Union member Gan Chen-yi, Kuokuang authorized Chou Lien-siang, a professor at National Taiwan University's College of Life Science, to investigate threats to the survival of the endangered dolphin species and come up with measures to save them. Allen Chao-lun Chen, a fellow at the Academia Sinica's Research Center for Biodiversity, also said that Taiwanese experts commissioned by Kuokuang have injected NT$100 million in studying the species since 2005, but that they have failed to have any papers concerning the conservation of Taiwan's humpback dolphins published in international science journals. It is worrisome, Chen said, that the conclusions and inferences of the studies have been taken as references for charting national policy even though they have not been examined by international academic circles. Gan said that results of research teams' investigations should be examined by the international academic community and used to devise measures for conservation. She also accused Kuokuang of being reluctant to face the fact that the land reclamation involved in the project is the root cause of the disappearance of the dolphin's habitat. Yang Hong-chia, who in 1963 was the first person to record sightings of the dolphins, said that there were less than 100 in the waters along Taiwan's coast, compared to an estimate of more than 200 in 2006. The drop in numbers is mainly due to the influence of various industrial development projects along the coastline, he said. The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins inhabit waters within three kilometers of shore that are less than 30 meters deep, with no apparent preference for clear or turbid water, Chen said, citing an international journal on aquatic life. The government should designate a habitat for the conservation of the species based on the Wildlife Protection Act, he added. 