My intership is coming to an end

I am finishing my internship with a session of land-based observation in Tai O tomorrow. It has been a great pleasure working with everyone at HKDCS/HKCRP and I thank them for their support in the past two months. I am also grateful for their friendship, without which it would not have been possible for them to tolerate my millions of questions (sorry can't help it - I love questions!). I would like to give a special shout-out to Samuel, who has been so supportive of my work in the internship programme as well as my dissertation work. Thank you very much!

In this internship, I have learnt a lot about cetaceans and local conservation work on them. I am glad to have been introduced to the wild dolphins and porpoises in a scientific way, and it definitely helped me better understand how these animals can be studied in the field. I hope everyone will do their part, however seemingly insignificant, to protect these magnificant creatures and the environment which we all live in.

Dolphins said goodbye...

It was Theresa's last day at work yesterday. We surveyed North-West and West Lantau and had 17 sightings in total. We said that the dolphins came to say goodbye to Theresa :-) It's been a great pleasure working with her and she's taught me so much in the past two months. I wish her success in the future.

We met a group of playful juveniles in the afternoon and recorded their sounds while they socialised. Sometimes they were so loud that we heard them even without putting the headphones on! Theresa had to help Vincent make the recordings, so I was put in charge of photographing dolphins for the first time. They surfaced together for most of the time so it wasn't too difficult to spot them and photograph their dorsal fins.

On another occasion, I spotted a dolphin which the two observers on shift had missed. Vincent (not on shift at the time) confirmed it as an off-effort sighting. I think I've definitely become very sensitive to the presence of dolphins now!

Land-based observations last week and Po Toi today

We spent most of last week in the office, except on Thursday and Saturday when Higher and I observed dolphins in Tai O. There were lots of vessels on the sea on both days (12 vessels at one point on Thursday!). For most of our sightings, the dolphins appeared once (briefly) and were not seen again. We wondered whether they were avoiding the large number of vessels. I believe we have become more confident in recording data, although the beaufort can be confusing at times. But with patience and thorough observations, we always managed to come up with a mutual agreement on the beaufort in the end.

We went to Po Toi today, our first survey in two weeks. It was nice to be on the sea again. It was wavy for most of the time but I still managed to complete my work with full concentration. I think I have become used to being on the sea now. I also remembered to put zero under 'trip' when I began effort today (instead of copying what is shown on the GPS, as I have done in the past). On the other hand, there are still small things that I keep forgetting. For example, I do not have to record 'speed', 'beaufort' and 'trip' when we end search effort. There is always room for improvement!

17-06-10 Land-Based Survey-- Tai O

Today, Maria and I had finished a Land-Base Survey by our own. I think we had performed it well because we can record data smoothly and expertly. It may the result of us to work hard and paid attention when learning of Land-Base Survey technique. It was cloudy today, but extreme humid, seems very hot. Luckily, there was a strong wind all the time, otherwise we will be bathed in sweat while surveying!!



There were only three sighting today and those sighting had just appear briefly. This picture shows there were eight boats including trawlers and container appearing in our survey region. Most of them are harboring and some are sailing. As cetacean rely on sound as their primary source of navigation, noise from boat engines may interrupt their communication. Maybe gather of boat is one of the reasons that fewer dolphins appear on the water surface and stay in this region today.



Become a researcher, patient is very important. Although today have only a few sighting, but we have continued to observe and record data patiently. Is it our talent to be an observer and researcher? I’m not sure, but the true is that we really enjoy our duty in HKDCS and honor to contribute to the wild-life research.






Higher Lai
17-06-10

Land-based observation in Tai O, June 12 2010

I had my first land-based observation yesterday. Standing on the hill and overlooking an extensive view of the sea was like looking at a painting with its scenery and objects in motion; dolphins and vessels entered the scene from one corner of the frame and exited through the other. It was amazing to see a dolphin emerge and soon followed by its companions, socialising and having fun. As an observer and data recorder, not a visitor to a gallery, perhaps the most challenging task was to keep track of more than one group of dolphins at the same time and any changes in their group composition.

We saw unregulated dolphin-watching boats from Tai O thoughout our observing session. One of them sped towards the spot where a few dolphins were just previously seen by another boat, which had returned to town. It was particularly amusing when Vincent commented 'do they know that the dolphins are free to swim wherever they wish?'. Perhaps these people forgot that unlikely dolphins in captivity, wild ones enjoy freedom and the right not to be approached, especially by irresponsible boat drivers.

When we returned to town at the end of the day, we walked past someone working for a boat company who asked whether we wanted to take a ride and watch dolphins. It felt so different from when I was in Tai O last year as a tourist, now that I have become aware of these unregulated dolphin-watching activities and their potential impact on the dolphins.

08-06-10 Land-Based Survey-- Tai O

Before I enter HKDCS, I’m same with most of the Hong Kong people that lack of knowledge of our “neighbor”. During this three week, I gradually built up consciousness of dolphin conservation. From reading and observing, I learn about their behavior, potential threat and their specific adaptation for aquatic environment. These kinds of experience are unique and really unforgettable.



08-06-10 Land-Based Survey-- Tai O

Tuesday, we went to Tai O for Land-based survey. Some of my friends don’t understand why do we go to the mountain for proceed a marine animal survey. As the case stands, Land-based survey can offset the defect of Boat Survey. Compare Land-Based Survey with Boat Survey, we obtain better view to the whole survey area and clearer sighting of boat effect to the dolphin.




Dolphins are getting hurt!!

Luckily, the “hurt” dolphin is only a model. But in fact, there are always a lot and lot of wild dolphins actually getting hurt by human’s development. Some of them may get physical hurt by vessel collision, some of them are disturbance by the underwater noise and dolphin watching boat.




The behaviour of those dolphin-watching boats we find is still acceptable. They had slow down or even stop their boat to keep distant from the sighting. However, they are still habit to surround the dolphins together for observation. It may cause potential injure and create underwater noise that annoy the dolphins.




Higher Lai
09-06-10

We surveyed West Lantau yesterday (5th June) with the girl guides on board. We had some good sightings and were all thrilled to see the dolphins perform natural behaviour such as feeding, socialising, breaching and spy-hopping. Parents approached me with questions about our work (e.g. how we record our sightings and distinguish between individual dolphins), and it was a bit tricky trying to answer them while being on effort at the same time; it was also the first time I spoke to members of the public on behalf of HKDCS! But Theresa thought I handled the situation well :-)

Samuel demonstrated to me how we could position our boat with respect to the dolphins. In one of our sightings yesterday, there were a few dolphins - relatively close to us - in the 1 o'clock position. Samuel instructed the boat driver to head toward 11 o'clock, a direction away from the dolphins but which allowed Theresa to be at a better angle to photograph the side of their dorsal fins.

So far, I have learnt to search for dolphins using binoculars, record information such as the boat's speed and position, estimate distances of objects on the sea, observe sea conditions and dolphin behaviour, record sighting information...I do not have much difficulties with using the binoculars (fatigue). On the other hand, distance estimation proves to be tricky at times, especially when large vessels can appear closer than they actually are! I am also better at decribing breaching and spy-hopping than the slightly more 'subtle' behaviour (to me) such as feeding.

Keira taught me the value of team work: When there is a sighting, it is important to search in all directions for any dolphins not detected initially, so that we help the busy photographers arrive at a better group-size estimation and age-class idenification.

Maria