Intern Veronica 2012: 1st Week

Hello, everyone.  My name is Veronica Frans and I am a new intern here at HKDCS.  I am doing this internship in order to fulfill a requirement for the second semester of my grad school program.  I am from New Jersey, USA and study International Nature Conservation at Georg-August Universität, Göttingen, Germany (www.uni-goettingen.de/minc).  My past 3 years have been spent doing research aboard commercial fishing vessels in Alaska for the US National Marine Fisheries Service. Fish, marine mammals and coastal marine environments are greatly interesting to me.  As languages are my hobby and I love working with people as well, I hope to one day work in community-based conservation programs throughout the world for the sake of marine conservation. Already gaining new skills important for such a goal, I know after my first week here that I was really lucky to find HKDCS and be accepted into this program.

The HKDCS team is relatively small, but they accomplish a lot each day.  It has actually grown fairly recently, so I'm not the only newbie here; the organization has 3 new research assistants, so we're all learning together.  The dolphin research mainly consists of vessel surveys and land-based theodolite surveys.  There is, of course, office work for data entry and analysis as well.  I was a bit enthusiastic and ready to jump to work right away, but Samuel, the chairperson and lead researcher for HKDCS, had me sit back and observe first.  When I was later handed binoculars and a range finder with which to practice, I then realized that I have a ways to go before I considering myself ready to sit in the observer chair.  Looking for cetaceans isn't just some opportunistic, hap-hazard thing; there's a protocol and it is strictly followed here.

A funny note: what everyone has jokingly called my first dolphin sighting wasn't of a white adult or a grey calf.  Instead, it was of a golden one, as seen here:

I asked everyone what that dolphin was for and they quickly turned around, ready to take photos as though it were for the survey.  I was glad they didn't go as far as to stop the boat for it, or I would've been really embarrassed by the misunderstanding.  Hahaha.  My next sighting was a bit more exciting though, and I was proud that I found a real one all by myself.  They're pretty fast!

I was assigned to join a dolphin watching tour this week and it seems that people from all over the world enjoy them.  They're playful creatures and seeing such an animal perform at a dolphin show is nothing compared to observing their behavior in the wild.  A few were feeding and porpoising the other day and it was awesome to hear the tourists gasp in awe and point in excitement.  Check out what we saw:

I have to say that after seeing them in person, the Chinese White Dolphin is indeed a beautiful Hong Kong resident.  Based on the conservation concerns that I've learned about thus far, though, let's hope these creatures stick around for future generations to enjoy as well.

Until next time!