Overdue Update!

Hello people!  Long time no write!  My apologies!

Life here has been pretty busy with the holidays, new projects and new people.  Since it's been about 7 weeks since my last blog and pictures are worth more than a thousand words, here's a showcase of some of the stuff that has been going on:

HKDCS had an opportunity to introduce the Chinese White Dolphin (CWD), Finless Porpoise and their conservation concerns to people from all over the world at the Diving Resort Travel Expo in December.  Divers: don't get excited, because diving with dolphins here in Hong Kong would be a suicide adventure--high speed ferries everywhere and even dolphins have close calls avoiding them!  I'm sure the guests at the expo were impressed and learned something new, though.

The cetaceans of Hong Kong decided to take a break for New Year's, so we all got together for lunch on the 31st.  Here's a brief and somewhat silly introduction of the team, from left to right:

• Sammy: Samuel's wife and HKDCS committee member.
• Samuel: the main man.
• Enoch: the prince of the kingdom. Loves pizza.
• Vincent: senior research assistant. Has dolphin ID numbers better memorized than his own HK ID. hahaha.
• Perry: the only one who isn't visually impaired but wears fake glasses to look good.  Also pretty on top of his game and is a well-seasoned research assistant here.
• 3 semi-newbies: Recent university graduates, they started this job 1-2 weeks before my arrival. Real fun group, with Tony and his love stories, Karen who acts like a big sister sometimes and Ellis who says things twice twice to be cute cute.
• Leo: former-intern-now-employee!! He's also well experienced at this job.  Likes a good laugh, as witnessed from watching Schwarzenegger's Last Stand with him the other week.
• And me!

There are 3 more newbies and others on the team, but as their pictures are lacking, please use the this picture below as reference:

Once again from left to right:

• Theresa: long-time worker who has returned to Hong Kong from England.
• Michelle: the Homo sapien in the front. A fellow American who's just as chatty as me and is going to be a grad student pretty soon and soon-to-be a HK cetacean expert.
• Newbies: Taison, Leon and Jackin. The three are HK residents, just like these lovely dolphins in the picture who like to hang out with Michelle.

Now, time for some real dolphins!  With many days doing land-based and vessel surveys, dolphins have been everywhere!  Yes, the days can be long and tiresome, but we never seem to tire of these guys.  I would like to show off some pictures that I took myself while on duty, so here they are:

Dolphins!!!!

Oh, and a lovely pic from Vincent.  I love babies!!!  Hoi tuen bibi!!!

The End :-)