(S.Korea) Migrating birds' habitat threatened by sea wall - Independent

[Eugene]

Source: The Independent

12 May 2007 13:11

Migrating birds' habitat threatened by sea wall
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 12 May 2007

Thousands of birds are being starved on their migratory routes between
Australia and Siberia as a result of a huge land-reclamation project that
has drained a valuable wetland habitat in South Korea.

A 20-mile-long sea wall has stopped the ebb and flow of the tides that
have made the Saemangeum wetland one of the most important feeding
points in the world for migratory birds. British conservationists from the
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said yesterday that since
the wall was closed a year ago the wetlands have been turned from a
thriving bird reserve to a barren wasteland.

-snip-

The Saemangeum wetland - one of the biggest in the world - was once
an important refuelling area for around 400,000 migratory birds making the
15,000-mile round trip between the southern hemisphere and south-east
Asia and their breeding sites in Russia and Alaska. On any one day there
could be more than 150,000 birds from 25 species feeding on the mudflats.
Two species in particular, the spoon-billed sandpiper and Nordmann's
greenshank, face extinction because of their reliance on Saemangeum
and the other remaining tidal flats of the Yellow Sea,the RSPB warned.

-snip-

Despite the huge changes incurred as a result of the seawall, there is
still a glimmer of hope for wildlife if the authorities can be persuaded
to keep the sluice gates in the sea wall open to allow some limited tidal
flow, said Nial Moores, director of the charity Birds Korea.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2533990.ece

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Before and after pix from BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6649233.stm



Another product of the progress-at-any-price culture.