Meeting WILD Flippers in Hong Kong

Seeing dolphins in Hong Kong waters was an emotional experience for me. Of course it was amazing, unforgettable, and seeing wildlife- especially large or mega faunas like cetaceans (whales and dolphins)- in or around a concrete metropolitan like Hong Kong is always rather unbelievable. All animals are amazing in their own way, but Chinese White Dolphins (or Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins) are very special; the adults are mostly pink, the juveniles are spotted, and the calves are grey! Hong Kong also inhabits another unique and incredibly cute looking cetacean, the Finless Porpoise, which is grey in color and -as the name suggests- it lacks a dorsal fin and also a rostrum (beak).

Spotted and Unspotted Chinese White Dolphins surfacing. (Photo still from my video clip, hence the poor image quality)

A Finless Porpoise- note the lack of the dorsal fin on its back and it also does not have the long snout (rostrum or beak) that most dolphins have. (Photo by HKDCS)

It is unbelievable to see cetaceans in Hong Kong for me because I don't know how they are able to co-exist alongside humans in such a dangerous place that is so densely populated, developed (still developing- e.g. HK-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge) and polluted. As Hong Kong is an important port, massive cargo ships, container boats and high speed ferries are a common sight, so common it has become part of the waterscape. Fishing boats (e.g. trawlers & gill nets) both large, small and sometimes illegal ones are seen in our waters, puffing out black soot from their noisy engines, further exacerbating the water and noise pollution problem.

Quite a few dolphin sightings were seen in the middle of these high traffic areas and it was very disconcerting. I couldn't help but shed a tear or two (or three) because it made me think what difficult lives they must have, constantly having to be on the alert for boats, and it must be stressful for them to find food and take care of themselves and their young in such a busy environment- their home. Mother dolphins that were seen by the staff and interns sometimes appear to have lost their babies after a few months as the baby was nowhere to be seen, and many of the Chinese White dolphins I've come across during the boat survey trips have dorsal fins that are broken or sliced apart due to entanglements with fishing gear or boat strikes, one even have only half of its tail fluke left. It is certainly a very sad sight to see- dolphins stranded (although I haven't seen a stranded dolphin yet- only heaps of photos) or bearing human related scars. However, even with scars, these lucky dolphins still swim and splash about gracefully, illustrating how strong and adaptable they are. :)

Further information and ideas on what you can do to help can be found in the following publications by the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society.

Taking away their freedom and placing cetaceans (whales and dolphins) into captivity as a means to conserve their population would not be the answer to this. Placing cetaceans into captivity in the name of conservation and research, then training them to do stunts to entertain people and for profit is even worse. Instead, we should aim to involve ourselves into more direct conservation efforts, such as choosing humane or organic food products, purchasing less electronics, recycling, writing letters to legislators to demand policy changes for better management and protection of our environment, and participating in public forums and consultations during the Environmental Impact Assessment process. Most importantly, think before you buy a ticket to marine parks, where captive dolphins and whales perform unwillingly for our entertainment.

17(+) Chinese White Dolphins decided to surprise us on Thursday 23rd December while we were looking for Finless Porpoises! They surrounded our boat and stayed with us for quite a while (we would love to watch them all day but we had to leave)! They were all very active, showing off their unique colors, patterns, graceful jumps and porpoising out of the water- the best and most gorgeous water acrobats!

Look! The baby! You see how small the baby (cutie in grey) is compared with its mother (lady in pink)?!!

look at that mini dorsal fin ♥ :D

Greetings from a lovely Chinese White Dolphin with one of my favorite quotes. It's become our nature to rely on others to do the work and this applies to many other issues too. Animals cannot speak for themselves, so act now and join us in saving our precious wildlife before it's too late!

MERRY FLIPPERS!

Dearest Hong Kong Chinese White Dolphins & Finless Porpoises,

Merry MERRY Merry Christmas!



May your Christmas (and days ahead) be filled with lots of love, food, fun and splashes! Most importantly, I wish you all safe days to come, away from the dangerous people and engines of boats and ships that also roam monstrously around and in your habitat.

Love,

Christie

Dolphin Carnival!

呢排中華白海豚再一次俾左surprise我!!

話說我地如常係west同northwest Lantau做boat survey, 一開始已經勁多sightings. 但係好戲在後頭, 十幾又十幾條ge白海豚相繼出現, 而且仲要係超近距離到我地不斷係度做acoustic, 個情竟就好似我地先至係被observe ge subject, 白海豚用breaching包圍左我地!什至果d俾breaching撻死ge小魚伸手可及. 我地相機ge SD card都差唔多用曬, Samuel更跑去船頭同佢ge老朋友會合, 我都拍左好多video

算一算, 今日合計ge best group size estimation達到86!!!可以話果日係香港水域ge大部分海豚我地都見到了:)

希望遲d有機會見到神秘ge江豚!!

實習．實踐

Hello!! 我係HKDCS嘅新intern亞龍! 我岩岩係UST Biology畢業. 之前係FYP有機會初次體驗自己嘅理想--conservation research, 但係始終UST冇專門研究conservation嘅prof, 所以這次係HKDCS internship才真正是實踐自己的夢想吧!!!

係香港呢個國際金融城市, 要做一份自己喜愛嘅Bio職業, 真的談何容易? Bio畢業嘅同學好多都要做一d唔係自己興趣/唔關major事嘅工, 我卻決定係其他人積極揾緊工嘅時候, 先到環團實習, 就是想在不可知的career path先以自己興趣full time工作, 也可以更了解將來方向.

在HKDCS的日子已超過1個月, 我可以說我沒有做錯決定. 由細到大, 我最鍾意嘅生物係海水魚 (FYP就是做marine fish嘅conservation), 跟HKDCS嘅dolphin research關係不大, 這可能是因為平常生活較少接觸海豚的關係吧. 但係這段internship期間, 隨著不斷有機會出海親身見到海豚, 加上從不同渠道加深了對海豚嘅知識, 我對海豚嘅興趣同愛護之情也大大增加了. 而家每次出海做survey, 我都有渴望想見到佢地. 雖然唔係每一次都可以係距離research veseel近嘅地方發現d海豚. 但係根據我呢一個月以黎嘅經歷, 好多時海豚係近距離被發現嘅話, 唔駛一陣間, 就會出現其他海豚. 情形就好似佢地自動同我地打招呼之餘仲叫埋其他朋友出黎甘, 加上佢地好奇嘅天性, 令我知道海豚真係一種有高度智慧嘅生物!

雖然我仲未能夠好似其他staff甘認得每條individual, 但係我都想同佢地建立呢種好似朋友甘嘅關係. 希望黎緊嘅日子有呢種緣份la!

nekky's intership life @2011=]

大家一定會想，實習的生活一定會經常出海，那就自不然是很寫意的。

在這個暑假中，我在香港海豚保育學會實習了300多小時，當中學到的東西有多很多，有令我轉變了的,也有我畢生受用的。

於觀念上，在香港海豚保育學會實習之前，我以為在香港水域的中華白海豚一直都生活得很好，生活在沒甚麼威脅的環境。閒時市民坐船出海近距離觀看，甚至伸手摸摸牠們，就是”親親大自然”，但在實習之後，我就明白到原來有很多人為活動又或者是一些香港的基建項目會影響海豚生活，例如一些觀豚船隻高速駛近海豚圍觀、香港國際機場第3條跑道的興建。我明白到原來我的生活中，所接觸到對中華白海豚保育的知識十分缺乏。

於保育技巧上，一星期內我差不多4天出海的時間，讓我掌握到以望遠鏡觀察及紀錄資料的技巧；在香港劃分了的9個水域行transect line及其後的資料處理，令我學懂如何取得物種的數據，進行分析；land-base 的考察中，讓我學懂如何使用儀器theodolite ，準確地讓我們取得海豚的活動路線，以分析人為活動對海豚的影響；acoustic 儀器的使用，讓我知道更多香港水底的嘈音對海豚影響的重要性。

於對外發佈訊息上，學會主席Dr. Samuel Hung在政府興建第三條跑道的問題上發佈過記者招待會，這令我學習到一個非政府的環保機構如何對公眾發佈消息，以及如引起公眾及社會關注；在今年的書展及潛水展覽當中，我學懂了如何向公眾宣揚保育海豚的訊息，以及發現不來有很多市民都很願意為保護環境、保護海豚出一分力；於不同小學中進行講座，令我學得如何教育小朋友保護海豚及明白教育下一代的重要性。

大家還會不會想，出海做海豚考察是很”soft”呢?

其實是要肩負很重要的責任的。

除了以上的種種，學會所收集的數據也會向政府呈交報告，每次想到這點我就會緊張起來，因為我覺得的工作更加是不容有失，但有時這反而令我弄巧反拙，不過當我又想到這是為香港的海豚出一分力時，這卻令自己起了一份熱忱來繼續努力工作，還有我也學到了大量鯨豚的知識，這一切都令我過了一個既充實，又有意義，又有益的實習生活。

Nekky =]

Paul's Word

This is Paul. I hope everyone has read my previous post on the blog. I have recently finished my internship with HKDCS during my summer holiday. The work which i did gave me a strong indication of such a field in my future is possible with the support of relevant course as well as everlasting keen interest on our lovely planet. Working with the dolphin gave me a wider prospective in knowing what has happen, what is happening and what will be happening among our dolphin living so close to us as a neighbour in our community.

The monitoring work gives a clear sense of the current situation of how dolphin is actively situated in our water. The work does not only tells us about dolphin but the everlasting problem associated with dolphin's habitat. It can also act as a part of an indicator towards our food web so that problem related to dolphin are be identified thoroughly through our long term monitoring scheme. Apart from that, this was raise my awareness towards protecting these organisms in a way that we as a human can live happily but at the same time to share our community with them because they also have the right to be here living, staying and exploiting resources.

I am happy to see our lovely dolphin thorughout my summer time. This has been an astonishing moment for me to meet relevant friends and people among HKDCS. These people not just protect our animal but they are willing to work with them because they truly believe in these animal so that they deserve a place in our community to stay.

I commit myself to protect these animal because they deserve a place to live among us!

我的快樂Summer Intern@HKDCS

我既Summer Intern終於都完結...呢兩個幾月係HKDCS做INTERN既體會同得著實在太多!

令 我對鯨豚特別係我地香港既中華白海豚同江豚有更深既了解~對香港地理了解多左~對香港既基建發展都多左了解~出海出海出海~~多過我呢一世仔未做 INTERN前出海既時間~~出海同做LAND-BASE 令我黑左好多~~黑到阿媽同美琪成日話我~~令我有機會去好多從來未去過既地方~~石壁~大澳~深屈~分流~大鴉洲~等等等等~~人生第一次參加大型既展 覽會~~做EXHIBITOR~~第一次去書展~~仲要係做參展商~~令我接觸到廣大市民~了解到唔到人對海豚保肓~環境保護等既睇法~~令我認識自己多 一點~~知道自己有咩不足既地方~~唔夠主動~~學野比較慢~~閱歷少~~寫字真係唔清唔楚...... : (

仲有!!!從海豚媽媽CH34睇到既母愛~~讓我深深體會到海豚既智慧係可等既高~~!同埋愛係無分物種既~~唔係我地人類獨有既特點~~我被呢份愛深深感動! ! !

更 重要既係~~認識到一班愛海豚~~愛自然~~愛香港既朋友~~係呢到~~我一定要多謝~~Samuel, Vincent, Perry, Ka Ying 你地包容, 耐性, 幫助同埋鼓勵 : )仲有阿Paul, Sylvia, 阿良同埋Dr. John Wang( 佢真係好勁!) 仲有仲有吳生~~好多謝你記得我個名~~仲講得岩~~阿謀~~好感動呀!!>< &吳太~~個次見到你聽到海豚聲後興奮既表現~~真係覺得你好似小朋友一樣咁可愛! ! ! : )仲仲有Mahler, 阿驅, Lucas, 阿金同埋一班香港自然探索學會既朋友~~雖然對你地認識唔深~~甚至可能連名都唔記得~~但係係書展同你地一齊努力既時光真係真係好快樂! ! !

講 左咁耐~~係時候到阿龍啦!世界真細少少少~~竟然俾我同你呢個失去聯絡差唔多十年既小學老友係HKDCS重遇, 成為INTERN PARTNER~~只能夠用兩個字形容! 奇妙! ! ! ! !同你係呢兩個幾月並肩作戰~~一齊TRIANING~~一齊做錯野~~放工一齊搵野食~~一齊哎肚餓~~早餐一齊食小學雞壽司~~兩個人食三個波仔 HAHA~~真係好開心! ! ! 多謝你! ! ! 阿龍!

最後想講~~雖然Intern完左~~但係唔代表我同HKDCS既關係完左~~日後有咩需要我既地方! 我都好願意參與架! ! !知道大家最近都為發生係香港發生係海豚身上既唔同事件而煩惱! ! !我只想講~~We work as a team! ! ! 再借利記既一句口號~"You'll never walk alone!" 我會盡我能力將呢兩個幾月所學, 所見, 所聽到既事實同真相~~從我身邊既人開始宣揚出去! !

咁多位朋友~~大家一齊加油! ! ! : )

We love dolphins!

It is right to protect our animals living on this planet before they become endanger and eventually become extinct. By knowing more about these animals, in this case the indo-pacific dolphins allows me to have a greater vision of how they exist in our planet as well as i could see clearly with my own eyes that majority of human development has cause massive damage to their surrounding environment and also towards their own health.

I hope to see them again and hope that our future generation has the opportunity to see it with their own eyes.

HKDCS@Hong Kong Book Fair 2011

HKDCS and SHKNE had held a booth in the Hong Kong Book Fair 2011 during 20/7 to 26/7. It was an interesting experience to me. It was my first time visiting Hong Kong Book Fair, I acted not only simply a visitor but also an exhibito and I passed my birthday there on the first day of the book fair. I never went to the book fair because I thought that the book fair must be crowded with people and boring. In fact, it really crowded with so many visitors but it's interesting because there are many types of books. I bought several books and I hope I can finishing reading them this summer.

The HK Book Fair provided me another chance to face the public. Different from the DRT Expo, it was not just introducing some conservation issues to the public, but in main focus, selling books to the visitors. (Of course the reason behind selling these books is also to promote environemtnal conservation to the public.) I was not only simply a visitor but I was also a salesperson. It was my first time to be a salesperson so I didn't know how to get start selling books to the visitors. I observed other salespersons like Vincent and Nekky and practiced so that I became more comfortable and initiative to talk to the visitors. The feeling of success when the visitors decided to buy books after I convinced them was so great. I knew my book selling skill was not good enough and I was not initiative enough. But I thought I had made improvement compared to DRT Expo. And I saw the importance of initiative from two top salesperson of our booth, Mr. Lau and Perry. I really need to learn from them.

Although being an exhibitor in the book fair was quite exhausting, I still enjoyed it. And I felt upset when it came to the end of the book fair. I would like to thanks everyone participating in our booth at the book fair for giving me such a great experience.


SHKNE's booth@Hong Kong Book Fair 2011












Top salesperson, Mr. Lau and his audiences.












Visitors were voicing out their concern by leaving their comments on our big banner.












Group Photo: Thank you all! I really enjoy to this week!











There are two weeks left for my intern. The coming week will be an exciting week because we will be full of manpower so that we will be divided into two team work on boat survey and land-based theodolite tracking. And we will have the boat survey in China Zhuhai on the last week. I am looking forward to sharing with you my feeling and experience in the coming two weeks! See you!

New intern at HKDCS

Hi all,

My name is Paul, i am a new intern from July and i wanted to share my little experience in this blog for the past 4 weeks.

I am glad that i had a chance in being part of the team and working as intern for HKDCS. The remarkable experience for the last 4 weeks puts me in a position where i started to involve in observation work, data calculation and organizing event. Alot has been happening throughtout the month of July and personally i learned alot and had experience different position with different duty at different time. Most of the work was new to me for insist it ranges from: a series of long term observation and monitoring work to calculating primary data and process them into a more representable form and more.

I particularly want to mention about Diving Expo. During that time, i had a feeling that i am so tiny in this world. From the moment i standing next to the skeleton of a Baleen whale i was tiny compare to the size of its head. When people ask me regarding this outstanding skeleton of a whale, i felt empty inside me because i could not tell much information about the whale rather keep repeating myself with the information i heard from others. I felt totally lack in details about this creature and i couldn't tell them more. I was limited with my knowledge at that moment and this has encouraged me that I should be able to answer them in full explanation as well as educate them through my understanding in this area of study.

Thank you team for answering my question and explaining it to me.

Half Way of My Intern & Dive. Expo.

Time flies, I am now on the half way of my internship. In the past 6 weeks, I see improvement myself progressively. But I also see my shortcomings.

I am now getting more comfortable on the boat. I got my first discovery of sighting of Chinese White Dolphin. However, I and Nekky made a big mistake when filling the survey effort data sheet. I still didn't do well enough to coordinate smoothly with my teammates (Sometimes in boat survey, I thought myself was acting as an individual, instead of acting as a team player.). And I didn't realize the importance of reading relevant readings, wasting valuable time in office.
Luckily, I am still on the half way, I still get time to improve, to turn my internship an invaluable experience.

Due to the intern and the lovely Chinese White Dolphin, I decided to buy the first DSLR in my life, D90 finally. And this is my favorite Chinese White Dolphin photo taken by myself with D90. The nurture of baby show the greatest love.
By the way, I have to thank Perry for borrowing me his 70-300mm lens so that I could take this photo.

Last Sunday, the Diving Resort & Travel Expo was over. The Expo provided me firsthand experience in promoting conservation issue to the general public. I gave the information about biology of dolphins and their conservation issue directly to the visitors. This really helped me to improve my communication skill and confidence in talking to others. However, I found myself not confident enough to talk with foreign and mainland people. I was not active enough to talk to those visitors. Sadly, I really missed a great chance in practicing my spoken English and Putonghua!

It also gave me a chance to see different responses from the general public on the conservation issue especially for those related to economic development such as 3^rd runway. Some people against it, a little support it and the majority of people seek for a balance between conservation and economic development. The balance between environmental protection and economic development is always a difficult question.

Moreover, it's happy to receive support from the general public. This let's know that the public understand what we are doing now and what's our purpose. No matter just a sentehnce of word, support form public is always an encouragement for those who work hard on environmental protection and conservation.

Thanks to the organization for giving us a big area to promote dolphin conservation.

intern exp ii =]

The third week of internship I have to read data about overview of finless porpoise and humpback dolphin, abundance estimated in HK waters, photo identification work and the survey procedure. Photo identification (photo ID) is one of the methods to monitor dolphins in a detail way and a safety way. Photo ID is to identify the characteristics of the shape dorsal fin and the dots on dorsal part. That can make me rich in knowledge of the field works.

Moreover, the locations of boat observation of Chinese white dolphin are North West Lantau and north east Lantau. I started to participate in being a data recorder and primary observer. I adapt to record the events faster than before and hence I feel more confident to handle the works.




resource: HKDCS    

The fourth week of internship I have to read data about abundance estimated in HK waters and the educational humpback dolphin PowerPoint. The PowerPoint is used for the education talk in school providing the updated information and knowledge to conserve Chinese white dolphins by public. This PowerPoint also inspires me about the presentation of the internship in CIE and the topic is about the concerning of the public.

        Moreover, the boat observation of Chinese white dolphin in West Lantau make me learn a lot. The west lantau is a hot spot of appearance of CWD. On that day, I started to record and be primary observer. But there are few group of the CWDs appeared at the same time. I cannot record the data immediately and accurately as that situation is the first time which I never meet. After that, I also miss the discovery of CWD because I find I cannot look accurately at the sea water when it is over 400m with binoculars. I cannot distinguish between CWD and waves when it just appear 1or 2 seconds. I also find that I am lack of confident to command to stop the boat when I cannot see it clearly. To sum up, I treasure this experience very much as it reveals me I am still not enough and need to work harder.

intern exp =]

The first week of internship is a training week. I have to read many data about dolphins and whales, and annual reports to government. That can make me rich in knowledge of dolphins and hence help me to handle the field works well.

        The land-base field works in Tai O let me observe the behaviors of humpback dolphin clearly and I have learnt finishing the works by GPS and theodolite. The theodolite can accurately detect the position of dolphins and boats.

    

        In the boat observation, I have to adapt the differences from the land to the boat physically, and the long-tern observation with telescope. Also I have to learn how to distinguish the different levels of wave and the format of information recording.

        In the school speech, I can learnt the technique of speech and know more about educational information.

 

The second week of internship is a training week. I started to try entering the researched data about Chinese white and finless porpoise last week. That data can make me know the distribution of dolphin in HK waters. Also the press conference impress me very much that how a NGO to proclaim message to the public and the message from Samuel inspire me how to consider the poin the long-tern observation with telescope t of views of new policy of government, especially the tricky statements and the motivation.

 

        In the boat observation, I started to try do locating which is the long-tern observation with telescope and the recorder of data. For me, I think the difficulty is hold the telescope and search for dolphins for 30mins. The boat is instable which increases the difficulty on focusing and which is very exhausted. The solution is spending longer and longer time to adapt physical problems. And I think it would be solved very soon.

Invaluable Experience - Internship@HKDCS

This is my first entry on the HKDCS Intern's Blog. In just the first two weeks of the whole internship program, i have gained a lot of great experience which I never expected when deciding to apply this program.

In the first day of work, I came to the office early in the morning. After all the full time stuff came back, the doorbell rang again. I knew the person must be the other intern student. A boy or a girl? Can I get along well with him or her? A lot of question came to my mind. He is a boy. A boy who seems I met before. He sat down and introduced himself. His name is Nekky. Then I asked a embarrassing question, “What is your full Chinese name?”. He smiled and spoke out my full name. It’s just amazing! My intern partner is my primary school friend who I lost his contact for over 10 years! The fate leads me to join this internship program and leads me to meet my old friend! A great beginning of my internship!

In the next day, we started our land-based survey training on using Theodolite to track dolphins and boats. I started to experience the harsh working environment my colleagues always facing. I felt I was inside a microwave oven, heat and heat and burn. I really got sunburn! And this was just the second day of my 3-month internship program! I knew I may face even harsher working environment in coming weeks, but I am ready to overcome them!

The most important component of the research work done by HKDCS is the line-transect boat survey. This is a challenge to me because I get seasick easily. With the help of anti-seasick pills and auto-adaptation, I feel much better now when travelling on the boat now. I hope I can throw the pills away few weeks later. After 5 boat-survey trainings involved both off-effort and on-effort, I found that it is very difficult to discover the appearance of dolphins using telescope especially at high beaufort levels. It requires 100% concentration. I knew I missed sighting of CWDs when I was the primary observer in a true on-effort survey. I must put more effort on using the telescope.

Moreover, I also took part in educational talks and press conference. That's my first time to take part in a press conference. That really widens my horizon. Thought the press conference, I understood more about the drastic decrease of the number of CWDs and their worsening living environment likely caused by the increasing trend of high-speed ferry traffic, reduction of fishery resources and underwater noise. Also, it gave me an insight about the topic-in-the-limelight, the proposed 3^rd runway. But it left me a question, “How can we have win-win situation for economic development and conservation of environment?”.

Thanks to this internship program which provides me a great variety of experience. I am now very excited about the coming 3^rd week of internship life with my lovely colleagues and Nekky. I hope I can make continuous improvement of my performance and I am looking forward to experience more!

Last but not least, I really realize how bad my hand writing is! I must try my best to improve it!

Trip to ZhuHai, China

      Last week the trip to China was nice, I went on the boat survey for three days. The survey vessel we are using is a shrimp trawler, a fishing boat with outriggers with a forward deckhouse. During fishing operation, the outriggers extend out over the sides of the vessel to for fishing nets dragging. We started catching fish after work and preparing for the seafood feast! We had lots of little crabs, shrimps and fish, they were super fresh and yummmmm♥ Vincent told me they got a huge cod the evening after I left, so jealous>.<

      We had a few sightings each day in Lingding Bay, including unspotted calve sighting. The little baby dolphin was so cuteee, always surfacing with her mother. She seems like she’s struggling with the wavy sea surface, swimming up awkwardly. She’s accompanied by several adults and an unspotted juvenile, looks like they are having a nice family time. Looking at this peaceful scene, I could truly understand the value marine mammals living freely in the wild without any constraints.

robin

Movie: "The Cove"

        'The Cove’ was one of the most influential, and perhaps heartbreaking documentary movie I have ever seen. It is about issues of dolphin slaughter that takes place regularly in a quiet cove in Taiji, Japan. Thousands of dolphins are trapped, some are captured and sold to dolphin aquariums, but most to be brutally killed for food. The team of activist, filmmakers and free divers are on a mission to record footages of the slaughter to expose it to the world. They go in at night with night vision and set up camera disguised as ordinary rocks. Since the local people will do anything to protect their secret slaughter, it’s an act of incredible risk to infiltrate the cove. According to the film, most of the people in Japan have no idea about the dolphin harvest in Taiji and they don’t eat dolphin. They have a right to know that the government is letting the sale of mislabeled meat and is toxic (high level of mercury concentration). So why does these horrifying acts still happening and will the people in Taiji survive without doing this? To me this is an interesting aspect of the film. This documentary film isn’t trying to give the audiences an opinion, it is only filmed to give you a view of a situation. I think it is not propaganda, meaning the audiences are able to understand if the point of view is a truthful illustration of the topic because it isn’t just a single side of the controversy.

        For me the footages of dolphin slaughtering certainly deliver the unethical process. This is like seeing a baby seal beat to death, except we might think baby seals are adorable. The Cove also emphasizes dolphins are smart animals that they are self-conscious. A few scenes in the movie are showing bleeding dolphins struggle for their last breath, to actually see their suffering, is devastating. The Cove is hard to watch sometimes, and the slaughter scenes are certainly not for the heartache but it is something that needed to be exposed. I hope the movie will bring a slight change in whaling policy, it’d be more helpful for the audiences willing to do more than just hand clapping.

robinnnnn

helloooooo

        It’s been a delightful experience going out for boat survey, enjoying the moments with these beautiful and energetic creatures in the wild^^ Before entering HKDCS I didn’t have much knowledge about dolphins and the problems they are facing in the world, I was getting the wrong messages from sea aquariums about marine mammals captivity and welfare. I have misunderstood the information that whales and dolphins performing in aquariums are living in standard, don’t need to worry about food and having a good time with ‘smile’ on their faces. When I actually go on the boat survey to watch wild dolphins swimming freely, chasing fish occasionally and relaxing in the afternoon, I realized that captivity for them is unethical and causes several physical, mental health problems leading to high mortality rate. Two weeks after my internship has started, I slowly built up my knowledge about the ecology and ranging patterns of cetaceans, humpback dolphin and finless porpoise in particular. Every effort made in the field and slight changes of the environmental variables recorded on datasheet can have significant alternation on the results, therefore it’s crucial to keep the errors in minimum. Consistency is another essential part of doing line transect surveys, it allows a comparison of results over different temporal scales, and to detect changes from both population and individual levels.

robin