８８ 香港!! (Bye bye, Hong Kong!)

Hello, world!

So, my time in Hong Kong has come to an end and I recently had to bid farewell to the dolphins. So sad!!! :-(  But it is okay.  I have almost 4 months of experiences that I can look back on and things were great even up to the end.  HKDCS seems to be at its peak season at the  moment and any interns coming in this year can expect themselves to have their hands quite full.

Since my last blog, much has been going on.  I finally got a chance to see more Finless Porpoises!!!  Also, the new projects have given us ample opportunities to see dolphins and spend more time with them when we're on the water, so that has been fun.  

It was the Chinese New Year recently (year of the snake!) so the team got together for an all-you-can-eat dinner and boy, oh boy did we eat!  After the dinner, us "youngsters" randomly decided to head out to the arcades, so the CNY/goodbye thing really turned into a big party.  When that wasn't enough, some of us also went out for karaoke the next day, so I was able to leave Hong Kong with plenty of giggles and good memories behind me.

Check out the fun below!

Finless porpoise!!  Not a nice head shot, but you can still see the ridge along it's back where a fin would have been.







Being a little silly on board.  But this is an example of what we do!  Tyson (far left) is taking pictures of the "dolphins" while Karen takes notes and Vincent makes a group estimate.  Ellis is spy-hopping and the pink chick is Michelle, who is a surfacing mother, while I'm the curious baby dolphin by her side :-)








Yet again being silly here, hahaha.

And the Japanese buffet for Chinese New Year!

As this is my final blog entry as an intern, I believe it is appropriate to make some remarks about the internship experience.  I have to say that this time in Hong Kong has served me well.  Even though I am not a cetacean-focused person, I learned yet another essential aspect for marine conservation as a whole.

In terms of the work, it's busy so here; there is always something going on and always something new.  As an intern, the work we do is mainly in the field, and then there's handling this blog and doing weekly reports.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but it can be a lot of work; and while Hong Kong has many attractions, I advise future interns to manage their time well.  Sometimes I would come home and feel really tired from the day, so nothing gets done at night; other times, I want to use a day off to explore and it would put me behind in things, so watch out future interns!

The intern's job still isn't much compared to what this team does as a whole, though.  Dolphin conservation is more than just jumping on a boat, looking for dolphins and charting out where they are--there is land-based work, behavioral studies, office work, math, report-writing, human relations, interactions with businesses, etc.  It amazes me to see Samuel hop on a boat, work with us for half a day, hop off for a meeting and then go home to work on a report while micromanaging us from afar via phone.  Other members of the team take their work home too. ... Talk about commitment!

Another thing I can say about this internship is what you learn.  I had no idea how complicated it could be, but dolphin research is indeed complicated.  I know I talk about how much fun it is, but this is still science and there is much that needs to get done before the sun goes down, so it needs to be done well.  For this reason, my first 3 weeks were spent just training.  And speaking of fun, I guess I should say that sometimes we get used to all these sightings and successful days, but there are still days when there is nothing going on.  When we don't see anything it is soooo boring!  Can you imagine just sitting and searching through waves for HOURS and just seeing NOTHING?!  And when it happens for a couple days in a week, everyone is sad and worried and it all seems hopeless.  But once we see a huge group again, everyone gets so excited and the  previous feelings are easily forgotten.  hahaha...

Well, I guess I'm taking up a lot of web space at the moment.  I think you get the gist of what can be expected if you choose to give HKDCS a try.  I truly wish the very best to anyone else who decides to take up this internship at HKDCS.  Perhaps I can return to Hong Kong again one day, but for now I will give it one wave of the tail for a goodbye.