Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program
April - May 2006: preliminary data

The Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Programme (SSMP), a joint undertaking between Birds Korea and the Australasian Wader Studies Group (AWSG), started on 30 March with the arrival of the first of an international crew of counters in South Korea. With most counting effort concentrated on three high tide cycles in April, the Program ran into mid-May. We are already fund-raising so that the counts can be repeated in spring 2007 and 2008 - enabling us to demonstrate empirically the impact of the sea-wall closure on the region's migratory shorebirds.

The data obtained in spring 2006 is (as of July 2006) still being collated. The final results will be made freely available and will form a core part of a report which we intend to distribute to decision-makers and potential participants before the next Ramsar Conference here in South Korea in 2008.

Preliminary summaries of the counts are given below.

Birds Korea - Australasian Wader Studies Group
Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program
Period 13-17 May, 2006


Red-necked Stint, Saemangeum. Photo © Jan van de Kam/Birds Korea

Background

The Seamangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program continued in May, with 2-4 teams of hard-pressed counters focussing on the crucial spring tide series from the 13th to the 17th.

They were hard-pressed because of the very large numbers of birds that needed to be counted (details below), and also because the window of suitable tides for surveys was rather short. Shorebird counts at Seamangeum, the adjacent Geum Estuary and Gomso Bay can only be carried out adequately during the biggest high tides, because on lower tides land-based counters are usually separated from the shorebirds by several kilometres of tidal flat..

The May surveys were successful, and as is to be expected during the peak of migration season, they showed that abundance of many species had changed since the last survey in late April. Numbers of early-breeding species such as Bar-tailed Godwit, Eastern and Eurasian Curlews, Eurasian Oystercatchers and Kentish Plover had declined, presumably as they had set off on the final leg of their northwards migration.

Overall though, the number of shorebirds present had increased, with the most striking increases occurring in species known to be relatively late migrants, such as Broad-billed, Sharp-tailed and Terek Sandpipers, Mongolian Plover, Red-necked Stint, Ruddy Turnstone and Whimbrel. Sufficiently large numbers of colour-banded or flagged Great Knots and Bar-tailed Godwits were resighted to suggest that North-western Australian birds were arriving later than those from Eastern Australia and New Zealand. Resightings of birds banded in other parts of the flyway (including some Dunlin from Chongmin Dao known to have been captured earlier in this migration season) will also help to resolve the migratory origins and routes of shorebirds passing through the region.


Great Knots, Saemangeum. Photo © Jan van de Kam

Counts

The greatest change of numbers seen was in the outer Dongjin Estuary (including the Simpo area), perhaps partly related to alterations in tidal level as the region settles down to a greatly reduced tidal range of perhaps 1.5 m (it was about 7 m before the sea-wall was built).

Local fishermen reported enormous concentrations of feeding shorebirds on islands between Simpo and the sea-wall in early May, but by the start of the count series these islands were no longer usually exposed, except on the very lowest tides. Many of these birds may have relocated to Simpo, where numbers of birds had almost doubled.

  • Counts from the inner Dongjin and Simpo area included a total of 81,459 shorebirds, with the most numerous being Great Knot (50,008), Dunlin (20,994), Bar-tailed Godwit (3,102), Mongolian Plover (2,825), Terek Sandpiper (1,667), Grey Plover (651), Whimbrel (650), Black-tailed Godwit (363), Ruddy Turnstone (311) and Common Greenshank (310). 121 Broad-billed Sandpipers were noteworthy, while species of special conservation concern included 3 Nordmann's Greenshank, a breeding-plumaged Asiatic Dowitcher, a Chinese Egret, 2 Black-faced Spoonbill in the inner Dongjin and an impressive 12 Spoon-billed Sandpipers at Simpo (also one on the inner Dongjin).

  • Impressive though the Spoon-billed Sandpiper count at Simpo was, it was eclipsed by the 21 found on an island near Ogku, in the Manyeung Estuary; other species of special conservation concern in this estuary included 11 Nordmann's Greenshank and 3 Black-faced Spoonbills. Numbers of Great Knot (36,280), Eastern Curlew (581) and Eurasian Oystercatcher (73) in the Mangyeung had declined, but this was offset by increases in the number of Dunlin (41,514), Red-necked Stint (5013), Mongolian Plover (3089), Terek Sandpiper (2188), Grey Plover (1528), Ruddy Turnstone (614), Common Greenshank (602), Whimbrel (378) and Broad-billed Sandpiper (217).

The overall number of shorebirds within the Mangyeung (95,496) was similar to that found in late April.


(From top) Spoonbilled Sandpiper Eurhynorhynchus pygmeus, Great Knots Calidris tenuirostris and Bar-tailed Godwits Limosa lapponica Saemangeum. Photos © Birds Korea/Jan van de Kam.

Proponents of the Saemangeum reclamation have argued that shorebirds will be unaffected by the development as they can move to the adjacent Gomso Bay or Geum Estuary, though this has not prevented them from subspequently announcing plans to reclaim the Geum. We found no compelling evidence for birds having moved into either system following closure of the Saemangeum sea-wall on 21 April. Gomso Bay has never held many shorebirds, and numbers remained low (767) there during the May survey, with only one species, Whimbrel (438), occurring in reasonable numbers.

The Geum Estuary poses greater monitoring challenges, and shorebird numbers there (66,627) had increased considerably since April, much of the increase being caused by an influx of Great Knot (29838, cf. 14024 at the end of April).

  • Other species in large numbers were Dunlin (20,150), Bar-tailed Godwit (3338), Grey Plover (3004), Mongolian Plover (1691), Terek Sandpiper (1629), Common Greenshank (1482), Whimbrel (1215), Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (1014), Black-tailed Godwit (930), Red-necked Stint (719), Ruddy Turnstone (695) and Eastern Curlew (492).

    Globally threatened species included a Spoon-billed Sandpiper and a remarkable 69 Nordmann's Greenshank.

Count data obtained during the expedition are now being compiled, and further updates will be provided when we have taken it all in. Some things are already clear though.

  • First, the counts confirm (if that were necessary) the outstanding importance of the area to shorebirds. In the May surveys alone, 243,582 shorebirds were counted in Saemangeum and the Geum Estuary, including about 30% of the known world population of Great Knot, perhaps 10% of the world population of Nordmann's Greenshank, and significant numbers of many other species, including the enigmatic and globally threatened Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

  • Secondly, we have not yet witnessed the death of the Saemangeum system.

The area of shorebird habitat within Saemangeum has been greatly reduced by closure of the sea-wall, and some resultant population decline in migratory shorebirds is probably inevitable.
Whether or not this decline will be catastrophic is in the hands of the Korean government; with appropriate management of the sluice-gates, and cancellation of the proposed Geum reclamation, it would be possible to ensure that very large numbers of shorebirds continue to stage in the habitat that remains.


Citation and Reproduction

Earlier count summaries from April have already been posted on several English-language list-servers, on the Birds Korea websites (in English and Korean) and on several other Korean-language websites. All such information is based on highly valued contributions from a number of international and domestic participants. It is provided freely and openly, with permission for (and hope of) online reproduction on other websites and by other organizations etc.

Respectfully, Birds Korea and the Australasian Wader Studies Group would appreciate clear citation of source for such online reference (i.e. as data from the Birds Korea/Australasian Wader Studies Group 2006 Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program), and we ask that a request is made for permission to reproduce in printed form.

Nial Moores, Birds Korea
Danny Rogers, Australasian Wader Studies Group

Birds Korea-Australasian Wader Studies Group
Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program
late-April 2006

Background

Although the 33-km long Saemangeum seawall was completed on 21April (blocking off 40 100 ha of tidal-flats and shallows at the mouths of the Mangyeung and Dongjin rivers, on the west coast of South Korea), 540 m long sluice-gates have remained open, and the restricted water-exchange has been producing an estimated 1 m tidal range within the Saemangeum system. This compares to a natural tidal range of 7 m at highest springtides.

Upper tidal-flat areas have become progressively drier through the second-half of the month, and some lower-lying tidal-flats have become permanently covered by water. Local fisherman reported extensive areas of sandflat with dead and dying shellfish north-west of the mouth of the Dongjin River, while beds of dying shellfish were also noted by the Monitoring team at Simpo(between the Mangyeung and Dongjin Estuaries) on 25 April, with puddles of red algal bloom in the same area on 28 April.

Shorebirds have apparently altered their distribution within the system in response to these changes (compared to mid-April and in comparison to previous years), with most species no longer using more upstream areas, and most individuals now concentrated in only a few remaining areas (e.g. off Simpo and Okgu). Large numbers of Great Knot and Dunlin have been feeding on dead and dying bivalves at Simpo. These shellfish were on the surface of the mud, gaping open, allowing shorebirds to pick out the flesh easily without ingesting the shells.

This crop of dying shellfish is proving a very temporary resource, however. It was first observed on 25 April,and by 29 April shorebirds at Simpo, for example, were feeding far less successfully, as the surface bivalves were by then mostly dead and the majority had been picked clean of flesh.

There has as yet been no evidence of any movement of shorebirds (individuals or species) out of the Saemangeum system in the late April period to adjacent areas.

Counts

Throughout the period, counts of key areas and leg flag searches were conducted by between 7 and 10 experienced counters daily, with over 10 further persons also involved in the Program during this period (many of these, however, present on only one date, 30 April, when field work was followed by an evening seminar on shorebirds and reclamation, with presentations by Mr. Jan van de Kam and Mr. Kim Hyun-tae).

Over the third series of April spring high tides (25 April to 30 April), repeat counting was also conducted at the Mangyeung, Dongjin and adjacent Geum Estuary, with full counts of the Mangyeung Estuary conducted on 25 April, and again on 28 and 29 April; at the Geum Estuary (including offshore islands) on 26 April; and at the Dongjin Estuary on 27 April.

At the Mangyeung Estuary, multiple teams of counters recorded 90, 640 shorebirds of 25 species on 25 April, with a rather similar count of 92, 678 individuals of 26 individuals recorded over 28 and 29 April. Counts were conducted on land, and also by boat at Okgu on 29 April. At least some of the small difference between counts derived from a significant increase in the number of Mongolian Plover recorded between counts, with 343 on 25 April increasing to 1,178 on 28 and 29 April (with a large increase also noted in counts of this late-migrating species in the Dongjin Estuary between 27 April and 29 April).

  • Most numerous species apart from Mongolian Plover were Great Knot (61, 013), Dunlin (24, 849), Bar-tailed Godwit (1,932), Far Eastern Curlew (876) and Grey Plover (643).
    Additional Species of Special Conservation Concern included 3 Nordmann's Greenshank on 25 April, with one on 28-29 April; 1 Spoon-billed Sandpiper on 25 April; and 1 Chinese Egret and 4 Saunders's Gull on 25 April.

At the Dongjin Estuary, four teams of counters on 27 April recorded a total of 45,100 shorebirds of 28 species, with 13,000 left unidentified (the vast majority considered to be Great Knot and Dunlin).

  • Most numerous positively-identified shorebirds were Dunlin (13, 480), Great Knot (11, 329), Bar-tailed Godwit (3, 512), and Mongolian Plover (532).
    Additional Species of Special Conservation Concern included 4 Spoon-billed Sandpiper, 4 Nordmann's Greenshank, one Asian Dowitcher and 10 Saunders's Gull.

Without any consideration of shorebird turnover, and combining only the totals of 27 April (Dongjin) and 28-29 April (Mangyeung) a minimum of 137, 778 shorebirds were present within the Saemangeum reclamation area towards the end of April. This compares with a total of only ca 68, 000 shorebirds recorded within the system on 15 and 16 April, 2006. Based on counts in previous years, most of this doubling in number can be attributed to shorebird migration strategies, with the peak in shorebird numbers in South Korea typically occurring between late April and early May.

Following claims by the South Korean Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry that shorebirds displaced by the Saemangeum reclamation would simply move to the adjacent Geum Estuary and Gomso Bay (see e.g. Birds Korea's MAF rebuttal from 2003), counts were also made at both sites during the period, with near daily coverage at the threatened Geum Estuary).

Four teams of counters conducted a full count of the Geum Estuary on 26 April, with one team on Yubu Island, one on an adjacent island (Daecheung Island) and two teams on the mainland.

  • In total, 51, 568 shorebirds of 24 species were recorded, with most numerous being Dunlin (21, 829), Great Knot (14, 024), Bar-tailed Godwit (9, 416), Grey Plover (2, 371), Far Eastern Curlew (704) and Mongolian Plover (533).

    Of very great conservation significance, 43 Nordmann's Greenshank were also recorded, including 35 seen at a single roost (in total, the counts representing between probably 4% and 8% of the world population of this Endangered species), along with 4 Black-faced Spoonbill (Endangered) and ca 14 Saunders's Gull (Vulnerable).

The Geum Estuary count on 26 April reveals a less than 15 % increase over the 45 000 shorebirds recorded on 17 April, when there was slightly less complete coverage. Of especial concern, most of this Geum Estuary system is also threatened with reclamation, with a two-phase plan calling first for conversion of the mainland coastal tidal-flats to industrial land; and the second phase (apparently on-hold for now) targetting the rather larger offshore tidal-flats.

A further count was also conducted at several points in the more southern Gomso Bay.

Previous counts in April on 5th and 15th found only 38 and 4 individual shorebirds respectively. On 27 April, 727 shorebirds of 8 species were recorded, with most numerous being Whimbrel (609) and Common Greenshank (55), both relatively late spring migrants to South Korea.

During the period, several more flag sightings and observations of individually-marked shorebirds were achieved within the Saemangeum reclamation area and at the Geum Estuary. During the whole of April, the Monitoring team made approximately 250 such sightings.

Whats next?

A further series of counts will be conducted over the spring high tide period in Mid-May; and then repeated in spring 2007 and 2008 (volunteers and funding are already being actively sought!). A fuller report of the Program in 2006, with spreadsheets of counts and some basic analysis of results, will be prepared over the coming months.


Citation and Reproduction

Earlier count summaries from April have already been posted on several English-language list-servers, on the Birds Korea websites (in English and Korean) and on several other Korean-language websites.

All such information is based on highly valued contributions from a number of international and domestic participants. It is provided freely and openly, with permission for (and hope of) online reproduction on other websites and by other organizations etc.

Respectfully, Birds Korea and the Australasian Wader Studies Group would appreciate clear citation of source for such online reference (i.e. as data from the Birds Korea/Australasian Wader Studies Group 2006 Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program), and we ask that a request is made for permission to reproduce in printed form.

Nial Moores, Birds Korea
Danny Rogers, Australasian Wader Studies Group

Birds Korea-Australasian Wader Studies Group
Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program
mid-April 2006


Surveying at Saemangeum, Photo © KIM Su Kyung

"We were so busy we haven't had the chance to look back and think about what this means,"

Kim Wan-joong, a director at the state-run development corporation, speaking about the completion of the Saemangeum sea-wall in a phone-interview with Reuters.
(Reuters, 21 April 2006)

At the time of writing (25 April), twelve international counters from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the US, the UK and the Netherlands have come to Korea to support expats and nationals (seven of the latter alone in the first two weeks of the Program; more expected to join later), conducting repeated shorebird counts, looking for flags, and assessing habitat changes. Preliminary count results have already been passed on to selected media, posted on several listservers and websites (both in Korean and English), with the Program already proving to be a truly scientific endeavour based on transparency, openness and genuine international cooperation.

As Birds Korea members well know, the SSMP was first proposed by us to keep Saemangeum in the national and international spotlight, by documenting how many birds use the Saemangeum tidal-flats and by determining through leg-flag and colour-band searches the origins of birds using the area.

The Program also now aims to record in detail what happens as the huge tidal-flats at Saemangeum start to dry out, and the shorebirds dependent on them are no longer able to feed there. Developers have of course repeatedly claimed that the Saemangeum reclamation will have no negative impacts on birds, as such birds will simply move somewhere else (blatantly untrue, based on decades of shorebird research in other countries: see e.g. our MAF rebuttal from 2003), but despite numerous hugely expensive official reports investigating water flows and engineering challenges, there is no official monitoring system in place to gather data on what actually happens to shorebirds in the event of such massive habitat loss. This is extraordinary, especially considering the known importance of the site to threatened waterbirds and migratory shorebirds (with the Saemangeum estuarine system believed to support perhaps 10% of all the region's migratory shorebirds), and in the knowledge of South Korea's intent to host the next Ramsar "wise use of wetlands" Convention conference in 2008.

Is it inappropriate to ask what will the meaning of " Ramsar in Korea" be to waterbird or wetland conservation if the loss of 40 000 ha of optimal habitat is even now considered unworthy of any official government comment or censure or even monitoring?.

We had all hoped to have a full season of monitoring in 2006 completed before any further work was done on closing the remaining gaps in the 33-km seawall. However a court decision in mid-March 2006 gave the go-ahead for completion of the seawall, which progressed with great haste, and the wall was closed on 21 April. From now, 540 m long sluice gates will remain open for a year, with the estuarine system filling-up with freshwater, leading to the direct loss over the first year of 90% of the tidal-flats. After that time, construction of inner sea dykes will begin, with a proposed time-table aiming for completion in 2011 or thereabouts. There is still no clear end use for any land created. We will continue lobying to maintain some tidal-flow in the system, to conserve some of the estuary's natural value.

The gradual reduction in seawater flow into the estuarine system was already having a marked effect on the tides. The first spring tides of the survey, at the very start of April, were reasonably high and brought many birds close to the edges of the rivers at some sites allowing colour-bands and flags to be seen. The next set of spring tides in mid-April were measured at approximately 1.5 m lower than expected, with some higher areas of tidal-flat already starting to dry out and crack. It is expected that the highest tides of the month towards the end of April will now produce only a 1 m or less tide within the Saemangeum system, and a 7 m tide outside of it.

Survey results during what were the last ever spring high tides in the system included 24 000 shorebirds of 23 species recorded on 15 April in the Dongjin estuary, including several species in internationally important concentrations.

  • Most numerous were Dunlin (19 020), Bar-tailed Godwit (2 326), Far Eastern Curlew (1343), Great Knot (293), Spotted Redshank (111), Eastern Oystercatcher (94) and Terek Sandpiper (91).

  • On 16 April, 44 000 shorebirds of 21 species were counted in the Mangyeung estuary, including several that meet Ramsar criteria as being internationally important. Most numerous species were Great Knot (28 000), Dunlin (15 625), Grey Plover (1325), Bar-tailed Godwit (1040), Far Eastern Curlew (788), Kentish Plover (472), Red-necked Stint (290) and Eastern Oystercatcher (85). A Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Endangered) was also seen.

While birds are still arriving (especially late migrating species like Terek Sandpiper and Mongolian Plover, which are expected to peak in number in May), it seems that numbers of many species already here (particularly Great Knot) are down substantially on what they were 5-8 years ago. Changes to the intertidal ecosystem will have been happening for some years now as the seawall became progressively longer and the comparatively low numbers of birds recorded in 2006 may be reflecting those changes. Perhaps it is such changes that have already resulted in the steep declines in Great Knot numbers reported in Queensland?.

The SSMP has also focused on surveying adjacent intertidal habitats, as these are the ones most likely to be used by some of the displaced shorebirds. To the south, Gomso Bay has proved to be an extensive but sandy and extremely poor habitat for shorebirds, with for example just four shorebirds seen there on 15 April. Immediately to the north of the Mangyeung River, the threatened Geum River estuary, however, is clearly an extremely important site internationally.

  • On 17 April, almost 45 000 shorebirds of 23 species were recorded, with most numerous being Dunlin (16 370), Bar-tailed Godwit (12 460), Great Knot (10 429), Far Eastern Curlew (2 560), Grey Plover (2 194), and Eastern Oystercatcher (862). In addition, on Yubu Island (part of the Geum estuary system) there were between 11 and 14 Nordmann's Greenshank (Endangered) and a possible Spoon-billed Sandpiper (Endangered), along with a breeding-plumaged Black-faced Spoonbill (Endangered) and ca 25 Saunders's Gull (Vulnerable).

It is clear that despite the developers' claims that birds will simply move to other sites after reclamation these alternative sites are themselves neither as suitable for shorebirds nor are they safe. The Geum River estuary and its approximately 10 000 ha tidal flats have long been scheduled for a major reclamation project, the first phase of which, according to local expert Chu Yong-Gi, is now anticipated to start soon after closure of the Saemangeum seawall. This, and the Saemangeum seawall closing at the most critical time of the year for migratory shorebirds in combination with the ongoing reclamation of other major shorebird sites (such as Namyang and Asan Bays), makes it all the more clear that shorebirds face an increasingly bleak future here in South Korea, unless existing national policies on tidal-flats are modified (e.g. in accordance with Ramsar Resolution 7:21), and unless the nation truly begins to fulfill its obligations to national conservation acts and international conventions and agreements.

The incredible beauty and natural value of the Saemangeum estuarine system might now be lost - but neither will ever be forgotten.


Citation and Reproduction

Earlier count summaries from April have already been posted on several English-language list-servers, on the Birds Korea websites (in English and Korean) and on several other Korean-language websites. All such information is based on highly valued contributions from a number of international and domestic participants. It is provided freely and openly, with permission for (and hope of) online reproduction on other websites and by other organizations etc.

Respectfully, Birds Korea and the Australasian Wader Studies Group would appreciate clear citation of source for such online reference (i.e. as data from the Birds Korea/Australasian Wader Studies Group 2006 Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program), and we ask that a request is made for permission to reproduce in printed form.

Nial Moores, Birds Korea
Danny Rogers, Australasian Wader Studies Group