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