The launch meeting for the book Kinmen Sea Slugs that Kinmen National Park Headquarters commissioned Hung Ching-chang and Ms Huang Hsiu-ting of Kinmen Battlefield History Association to write and which took two years for surveying, photography and writing was held at Zhongshan Forest Visitor Center on January 18. The authors were invited to share the course and results of surveying and photographing sea slugs. The event was enthusiastically attended by people who care about the ecology of Kinmen.
Kinmen National Park HQ deputy director Yang said that two years of surveying recorded 169 species of sea slug, in 34 families in six orders, with 30 species the same as Taiwan and 55 newly recorded in Taiwan; another 84 were listed as sp.unknown. The book is full of sea slug ecology illustrations and introduces types of sea slug, habitat and ecological habits in easy to understand language, allowing readers to go deep into the colorful world of sea slugs; the book can also be used as a marine ecology textbook.
Author Hung Ching-chang said sea slugs have a wide distribution and habitats can be divided into beaches, mud flats, river mouth swamps, brackish lakes and low tide zone reef rock gravel. They differ greatly in shape, ranging in size from one to hundreds of millimeters and come in varied beautiful colors. Previous surveys underestimated the diversity of sea slugs of Kinmen and this is down to three difficulties of conducting sea slug surveys: 1.difficulty in observing sea slugs, 2. difficulty in identifying the species and 3. Matching the Chinese name of the species. The publication of Sea Slugs of Kinmen is a step forward for the study of the tidal zone of Kinmen. It is hoped that more people become involved in long-term tidal zone research in Kinmen and it is sure that more species will be discovered.
People interested in the book can buy it through Wunan Books, Government Publications Bookstore and sales points cooperating with the HQ.