Reviving Taiwan’s Giant Clams

REPORTER:  

Divers gently place giant clams just off the Shitiping Scenic Area on Taiwan's east coast. It’s slow, deliberate work, aimed at bringing back a species that’s suffered badly from overharvesting.

This project, spearheaded by local Indigenous people, has been underway for four years. Despite some success, there have been big setbacks.

Over the past year, damage from typhoons has caused the population of giant clams here to fall from 124 to less than a hundred.

Chen Chieh-min (PORT COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT ASSOC.): 

Just imagine, when many dozens of tons of driftwood flow over Shitiping in one night it scrapes off all the coral just like a truck or a tank ran over it.

REPORTER:  

Poaching has been a problem, too. People here say someone took five giant clams just days after they introduced them to these waters in September.

But even if they could track down who stole them, legal avenues are limited.

Lin Tung-liang (KUROSHIO OCEAN EDUCATION FOUNDATION):  

There is special attention now on what we can do in terms of conservation. Internationally, they’ve always been a sensitive species under Appendix II of the Washington Convention but they’re not yet a protected species in Taiwan.

REPORTER:  

But there’s no giving up here: as far as these divers are concerned, 2026 will be the year of the giant clam.

There are plans to team up with the government’s Fisheries Research Institute to collect clams that have settled in unsuitable tidal areas and move them to safer waters—helping to boost this vulnerable species’ numbers in their native habitat.