Abstract
On
seaweed and seagrass, targets of environmental impact assessment (EIA)
have been selected from commercial species but rarely from endangered
(rare or academically important) species in Japan. However, some
recent EIA have paid attention to endangered species such as a green
alga Acetabularia and a yellow-green alga Pseudodichotomosiphon
because of enlarged concerns on the species diversity. At present, 90
and 25 marine algal species are listed in the Red List (Ministry of
the Environment) and the Red Data Book (Fisheries Agency),
respectively. On the other hand, 7 prefectures enumerated a total of
107 algal species, while 34 prefectures listed a total of 18 seagrass
in their red lists. Further increase of listed species in red lists as
well as changes in social conditions may expect much more EIA before
starting large civil engineering projects but ecophysiological data on
endangered species and monitoring of their populations are needed for
accurate and strict assessments.
