Suncheon Bay, Over 10,000 Hooded Cranes Arrive... Request to Government for Support in Expanding Hooded Crane Habitats

On the 24th, Kim Seung-hee, Director of Yeongsangang River Basin Environmental Office, Visits... Wetland Restoration Needed Including Removal of Utility Poles

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seon-sik] Suncheon City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Noh Gwan-gyu) announced on the 24th that Kim Seung-hee, Director of the Yeongsangang River Basin Environmental Office, visited Suncheon Bay.

This visit was to inspect the habitat of the Hooded Cranes in Suncheon Bay and the AI management status, as the Japanese Hooded Cranes have been migrating back into Suncheon City, and to communicate with the city to prepare countermeasures.

Currently, about 10,000 internationally endangered Hooded Cranes have been observed in Suncheon Bay.

This number represents a 140-fold increase over 26 years since about 70 Hooded Cranes were first observed in 1996.

Since early November, the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) that has struck Izumi, Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan, has caused the Izumi Hooded Cranes to move en masse to the clean area of Suncheon Bay.

The Hooded Crane is an endangered species with only about 17,000 left worldwide, and the fact that 60% of them visited Suncheon Bay this year is largely due to Suncheon City's active improvement of the habitat environment.

Since 2009, the city has focused on creating a stable wintering ground for Hooded Cranes by removing environmentally harmful facilities, restoring wetlands, removing 282 utility poles, and operating an eco-friendly Hooded Crane Hope Agricultural Complex.

Although Suncheon Bay attracts 60% of the world's Hooded Cranes, challenges remain.

The main issue is expanding the Hooded Crane habitat.

The current habitat is too small to accommodate the incoming Hooded Cranes, so their activity area needs to be expanded.

Accordingly, Suncheon City delivered a proposal to Director Kim Seung-hee of the Yeongsangang River Basin Environmental Office requesting government support to expand the Hooded Crane habitat.

The proposal included expanding the removal of utility poles within the ecosystem protection zone, expanding the eco-friendly Hooded Crane Hope Agricultural Complex, and expanding restoration projects for damaged areas of the Dongcheon estuary.

Mayor Noh Gwan-gyu of Suncheon said, "This incident of the Japanese Izumi Hooded Cranes escaping confirmed that Suncheon Bay is an important habitat for the conservation of Hooded Crane species worldwide," adding, "The national government, including the Ministry of Environment and the Cultural Heritage Administration, should actively intervene and provide policy support for the conservation of endangered species."

Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Heo Seon-sik hss79@asiae.co.kr

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.