1
Call 118
Report to the Coast Guard and start the rescue. Please stay on the line until the operator confirms everything before hanging up.
Every stranded whale or dolphin may be a life reaching its end. Rescue cannot always turn death around — but every effort turns a life into scientific knowledge that guides Taiwan’s cetacean rescue forward.
Most stranded cetaceans are already dead when found — but with luck, there may still be a chance! Live rescue is a race against time, and it starts with one phone call. You don’t need to be an expert — just know who to call, and what to do and not do.
Report to the Coast Guard and start the rescue. Please stay on the line until the operator confirms everything before hanging up.
Give the location, time and your contact, and describe the animal’s size (compare with your arm span or foot), whether it is alive (watch the blowhole for movement) and any injuries — this decides the team, vehicles and equipment dispatched.
Until professionals arrive, observe from afar, record and photograph, and report the latest condition to the rescue team.
The MARN response team takes over assessment, care or transport. Well done — you have completed the most important first step.
A “stranding” is a cetacean washing ashore through injury, illness, disorientation, vessel strikes and other causes. Each loss teaches us more about the ocean: the species, places, seasons and causes of death reveal what is happening across the whole sea. The data below comes from the official MARN stranding reports.
Across seven years, annual strandings ranged roughly 128–161, with 2025 a relative low. More notable: the live share fell to a seven-year low (just 7 animals, 5.5%). Total ups and downs don’t necessarily reflect population change — reporting coverage and environment play in — so long-term tracking is what makes the numbers readable.
Strandings cluster clearly in winter and early spring. Strong northeast-monsoon waves, water-temperature swings and migration seasons can all make weakened animals more likely to wash ashore.
Lienchiang, Kinmen and Penghu — three offshore-island counties — total 65 animals, 51% of all of Taiwan. The coastal finless porpoise populations around the islands are the hotspot within the hotspot.
A full 70% were too decomposed to determine a cause of death — and that share keeps rising (about 56% in 2020 → 70% in 2025). The later an animal is found, the harder the truth is to reach; that is exactly why timely reporting and digitization matter. Confirmed human-activity causes (bycatch, strikes) account for 15% — only the provable tip of the iceberg.
Strandings concentrate heavily — the top five species make up three quarters. And the finless porpoise share keeps climbing: about 29% in 2020, 39% in 2022, 45% by 2025. This coastal porpoise’s range overlaps intensely with human activity; the pressure deserves vigilance.
Each glowing dot is a county, sized by its 2025 stranding count. Lienchiang, Kinmen and Penghu — three offshore-island counties — total 65 animals, 51% of Taiwan: the islands’ coastal porpoise populations are the hotspot within the hotspot.