The new one

Guten Tag!

My name is Anke and I will be the new intern at the HKDCS for the next two months. Back In Germany I’ve almost finished my Diplom in Biology/Ecology, but I’ve wanted to come to Hong Kong to do cetacean research for a long time now. I’ve already seen dolphins in quite a few rather natural places, but it is fascinating how dolphins actually live in such an urban place like Hong Kong, which for me has always been synonymous with skyscrapers and high ship traffic. It is only natural, that these animals face a high risk of endangerment in such a fast developing and anthropogenic place. Luckily the HKDCS is doing intensive research in order to protect not only the Chinese white dolphin but also the more elusive finless porpoise, because we still know little about both species. Especially habitat preferences but also behavior could be critically affected by all the human influences.

This first week of my stay was full of training and full of rain. During the first three days I’ve been on boats to get introduced to line-transect surveys, which – though I knew the theory – I’ve never done before. It is great to still learn new things after having done quite a bit of cetacean research already. With new projects you always learn so many new things, not only techniques, but also research approaches, new obstacles and – of course – new species. Unfortunately the rain continued for three days straight, it’s still the rainy season after all. We however still managed to see dolphins – my very first sighting in fact was of two mother-calf pairs, and the calves even did some spy-hopping. On another day, one dolphin was breaching quite a few times. Dolphins indeed never fail to enlighten me.

Funny enough, the other days were the complete opposite: I helped with land-based theodolite-tracking and the sun was burning down on us. Again there was so much to learn. It was really interesting and actually quite shocking to see how much boating of all imaginable sizes is going on, although I’ve been told that the traffic is still comparatively low in this station.

I enjoy being both on boats and on land and I know how important the combination of different platforms is. Land-based surveys can at times be challenging because you only see dolphins from far away while putting in long days of work. But they do provide so important information.

I’ve also already met quite a few people from the team and couldn’t have faced a nicer welcome. I’m really looking forward to spending the next weeks working with those people, helping with all the different ongoing projects, and contributing my little share to the conservation of those precious animals. I’m sure there will be countless and great experiences laying ahead of me.

That’s it for now,

Anke

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

The End

It finally comes to the end of my internship programme. Last week was so fruitful that I did some special sightings during both theodolite tracking and line-transact survey.

I was lucky to be given a chance to do my last theodolite survey in Fan Lau, which was the most amazing one that I had even done. I could even see a group of six to seven dolphins surfacing in inshore area, which was the first time that I see such large number of dolphins surfacing together. It was really exciting!  

Also, dolphins kept surfacing actively in the first two hours of the survey. Different groups merged and spited out continuously. It was a bit hard to identify which group the dolphins belong to as there were too many dolphins at the sea. 

For my last line-transact survey, it was a little pity that I had never been on effort to do line-transact survey throughout the internship programme. However, I still had an off-effort sighting during my last survey.

A special guest in this picture..guest who!

I observed a dark calf surfacing around 20 meters away from the boat and I yelled immediately after the surfacing. After we stopped the boat for further observation, the group was found to consist of a mother-and-calf pair and another dolphin. Through photo identification, the calf was found to be a famous calf, Hei Hei (希希). Its true story was written in a book called Man Vs Dolphin (豚在野希希大冒險). I was glad that I did a nice job during my last line-transact survey.

There is an end to everything, to good things as well. I feel difficult to say how much I have learnt and experienced in the past nine weeks. I have enjoyed my time here and it has been my pleasure working with the amazing staff here and the enchanting animals at sea. I will remember the time we worked together and the moments that I was excited by the fascination of dolphins.

Good Bye!!

Leslie

Approaching the End

Hi again!

                I’m fast approaching the end of my time here in HK working with the HKDCS. I can’t even begin to describe how much I’ve learned and how much I’ve enjoyed this experience. I only have three weeks left, and I honestly don’t know where the time has gone this summer! Over the next couple weeks we will be very busy conducting theodolite surveys from our three new land based stations, not to mention the workload for the AA and HKLR boat surveys is still on our schedules. I’m sure, considering how busy we will be, that my remaining time here will go by in a breeze. I will be quite sad to leave HK, the dolphins, and the wonderful people at HKDCS, therefore I will be sure to soak up and appreciate all the time I have left here!

That's it for now,

            Danielle

Weathered the Storm

            This week started out great! On Monday the HKDCS had their first theodolite tracking survey at the new land based station in Tai Ho Wan. It was a great success with two dolphin group sightings near the Brother’s Islands. It is encouraging to see the dolphins in the area because it used to be a major dolphin hotspot in past years.

            Despite this good start to the week, Tuesday, Wednesday and even today were spent indoors away from the rain and the wind. Typhoon Utor passed through the region and brought with it some heavy winds and rain. There was a T8 warning issued by the Hong Kong Observatory, and apparently the Beaufort sea-state had even reached a level of 8 on Wednesday. It’s a good thing our surveys were postponed to next week! This was my first typhoon experience in Hong Kong and I was quite impressed – the winds can get to be so strong at times!

            Although the typhoon has passed, the weather for next week still looks wet and windy. Here’s hoping we’re able to get more surveys in while staying safe and dry. I’m nearing the end of my internship with only four more weeks to go, and it’d be nice to finish off with some beautiful sunny Hong Kong weather and lots of dolphin sightings!

That’s it for now,

Danielle

A Non-skilled Theodolite Tracker

It was my routine to be a computer operator and observer when doing theodolite tracking. But last Wednesday, I was so happy to be given a chance to practice operating theodolite. I knew that it was hard to focus objects within the extremely small field of vision of eyepiece; however, it was my first time to experience how it actually is.

 

As the traffic was not heavy in Tai O, I focused on tracking those tour boats travelling in inshore area of Tai O. Every time I wanted to focus the boats, I spent a long time on adjusting the eyepiece. Even though I had found them, I still needed to pay much effort in focusing the right position of the boats. And sadly, I was not able to do it very accurately. The longer time spent and the inaccuracy of fixing positions are the most obvious differences between my work and the masterpiece of those experienced theodolite operators, Vincent, Perry and Leo. I really appreciate their skills in operating theodolite after the trial.

This experience was really a precious one in the internship programme. But it was imperfect that I was not lucky enough to track dolphins as they disappeared just before I started tracking. Hopefully I could have another chance to practice it again on the remaining days that I stay here, though it seems to be impossible.

Another small update

I’m back!

            This week at HKDCS started off great! We had some really exciting sightings during our land-based theodolite tracking surveys at the airport. Some of the sightings were even in close proximity to some very heavy marine vessel traffic and the reclaimed shoreline of the airport. It was impressive to see the dolphins co-exist in such an environment, and after this week I am hopeful for their ability to adapt to the human stressors in their habitat. However only time will tell if they can actually succeed in face of all these accumulating impacts. All of us here at HKDCS really hope so!

            Later in the week we received some rainy weather and so many of our field surveys were postponed to next week. Here’s hoping the weather clears up and we get some great fieldwork completed in August!

Until then,

Danielle