Saturday, 31 August 2013

The Mysterious Finless Porpoise


Hi Again,                

              This past week I joined a survey for the AFCD in the Po Toi and Nine Pins region of Hong Kong to track finless porpoises. I was really excited about this field survey because in all my 13 weeks here in Hong Kong I have only had one sighting of the finless porpoise so far! They are such fast and elusive creatures that I have yet to get a really good look at them.  Unfortunately during the entire Po Toi survey we didn’t have any luck spotting a porpoise, even though the Beaufort sea-state was at a level of one practically the entire time. However, once we made our way over to the Nine Pins survey area to do one transect line before calling it a day, we finally got a sighting! One of our staff saw a porpoise surface really quickly in front of our boat. We cut the motor and drifted, all of us scanning the water to try and see the porpoise surface once more. After about 10 minutes of searching we gave up hope of seeing the porpoise for a second time and continued on with the survey. Needless to say, the sighting was so fast that I didn’t get a chance to see it for myself unfortunately! However joining the AFCD field survey on that day was still well worth it; I always enjoy doing this type of field work, and the Po Toi and Nine Pins areas are just so beautiful! It was a great day!


So long for now, 
Danielle

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