It's not the end!

Time really flies and here it is, the completion of my summer internship with HKDCS. It seems that luck is on my side as my last land and boat surveys were both days that weather might have been an issue, but it turned out to be both good days with dolphin sightings! I saw CH34 aka Ropey aka 大麻绳! If you don't already know the story of this dolphin please have a read of the article that Taison wrote (http://3rwdolphin-eng.weebly.com/30-dolphin-victim-stories/ropey) !

It has been an amazing time with wonderful people and I only wish I had more time with everyone and the dolphins. I want to thank Samuel for giving me this amazing opportunity as well as the rest of the staff interns for everything I have learnt. Everyone brings their own unique character to the HKDCS / HKCRP family. Perry asked me recently if I am worried that if I come back in the future to Hong Kong that the current staff will not be there anymore. And indeed I would be sad if I came back and the staff I know aren't there anymore. Though its only been a little more than 2 months, I feel like we've spent so many good times with each other. It's been an honour to work with a group of people that are so passionate about their job; everyone's' spirit and determination is inspirational. Below is a picture of most of us (missing Natalie :'( ), but hopefully I can replace it with a photo where all of us are present.

I never like saying goodbye's but there is a quote that I always refer to in these situations.  "Goodbyes are not forever. Goodbyes are not the end. They simply mean that I'll miss you, until we meet again." - Unknown Author

So until next time. Peace out.
Tiana

Summer Time!

So, working at HKDCS already requires us to be outdoors a lot a thus we all get tanned especially since it is summer. One intern especially, cough *Natalie*, has received a lot of comments about her new look! But to be honest all of us have gotten darker. In spite of this, a few of us decided to take a trip to the beach for a full day! 6 of us (Perry, Taison, Yuki, Heyman, Natalie and I) went to Sai Kung Tai Long Sai Wan for the day to relax and enjoy the day. I also took them to a waterfall near by which we could jump in and bravo to everyone as we all took a leap of faith and jumped in from the rocks above. Photo's will be coming soon once Yuki has them ready! We ended the day with a great dinner and were joined by Phoebe, Tiffany, Karen and Elise.

As a side note, 5th of August is also a special day for one of the staff members. Vincent and his wife celebrate the safe arrival of their baby twins. Congratulations! All the interns and staff wish you good luck with everything!

Hi~ Bertha here!

Hi everyone, I am Bertha, the forth intern working in HKDCS this summer.
First, I would like to apologize for updating the intern blog late. Working in HKDCS for the past few weeks is very enlightening and I have learnt a lot. I will try to conclude what I have learnt in the following paragraphs.

I will start with introducing myself. I am a year 2 student studying environmental science and management in City University of Hong Kong.
For the first few weeks I focused on the 30 Third Runway Victims campaign. This campaign has come to a huge success as we have collected 15000 comment forms from the public. Apart from preparing comment forms, I had met lots of dolphin guardians and helped with street stalls. The dolphin guardians come from different fields, so chatting with them is really interesting and I enjoyed it a lot.

Lately I am helping out with line transect and land based surveys and I had my third land based survey today! It is really hot but when I knew that we saw 10 groups of dolphins today, everything worth it!
I will update more next time ;)

Hi all, I am the third summer intern, Natalie.

First of all I would like to apologise for writing this post so late- I am already more than halfway through my internship... MANY things have happened in the past two months and i won't bore you with too much details. I willl just start by introducing myself and briefly recapping what have happened since I started working with the HKDCS.

I am a BA Geography undergraduate who have just finished second year of study at the University of Sussex in the UK. This summer I have come back to Hong Kong especially for this internship and also to collect data for my final year dissertation.

If you haven't already read the previous posts written by Tiana and Phoebe, with a total of more than 15,000 comment forms collected before midnight last Saturday, the 30 Third Runway Victims campaign came to a perfect end at the book fair. Everyone worked so hard through these 30 days including the staff and all the dolphin guardians (the volunteers). Never had I imagine myself participating in a campaign like this, and there I was, handing out paper fans in the 30 victims t-shirt and talking to random people till my throat was sore. It was truly a big step out of my comfort zone and a discovery of what I am capable of.

That's all for now, i will talk more about the fieldworks in the next post. Sorry i havent been able to write much about my experience- i hope the following photos will make it up to you!

one of our mysterious staff looking for dolphin during a boat survey

rallying for the Chinese white dolphin

View of West Lantau from the Shum Wat theodolite station

the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macau Bridge construction as seen from the Shum Wat theodolite station

another mysterious staff contemplating the meaning of life under the melting heat during a land-based survey

getting ready for the 7 1 demonstration- look how beautiful our t-shirts are!

leading a school trip to see the dolphins- stopping at Sha Chau

boat survey- the primary observer and the data recorder

Lastly, enjoy a video clip of the Chinese white dolphins I took on my first boat survey!

Surveys Again!

The official "30 Third Runway Victims" campaign was a great success! We received tons and comment and support. Hopefully our efforts have not been in vain. I feel so happy to have contributed to such a great cause and worked with such a wonderful team of people!

Now that the campaign and book fair has ended, we are finally back to a more normal schedule of surveys. Today was my first day at "Sham Wat" for a land based survey. All the interns have been except for me and everyone was telling me how horrible the hike and the place is. Because of all this I really thought it was be awful, but it wasn't as bad as I predicted it to be. I'm not saying that it is an ideal place as it is still pretty exhausting; it was a hot and I did get sun burnt.

The hike wasn't too long and I can proudly say I managed to carry the tripod there and back! We also some cool spiders on the way. In fact, on the way back, Vincent spotted a spider that was shedding?! This was the first time any of us and seen or heard of spiders that need to shed. Vincent was kind enough to let me use his photo. Have a look!

"30 Third Runway Victims" Campaign; “海豚30”

We launched our "30 Third Runway Victims" Campaign on June 20th and everyone is working hard to save the Chinese White Dolphins. We have 2 street stalls at the 1/7 protest yesterday and got so many comment form submissions against the Hong Kong Airport's Third Runway EIA report! It was a long but fruitful day. All the staff, interns and volunteers were standing and shouting for hours on end. Its inspirational seeing all of us putting in so much effort for such a great cause!

Its been a long and busy week with more to come. Though we haven't be able to work on the boat and conduct surveys as much, we aren't complaining because we're still helping the dolphins! If you haven't already please check out our campaign and submit a comment (http://3rwdolphin.weebly.com/).

Monday was also the last day for our lovely staff member, Tiffany. She's such a bright and cheerful girl and will be greatly missed in the office. I'm sure we'll see her around during are weekend street stalls but still good luck with everything nonetheless!

Dolphins, I'm coming~!

Hi everyone, I am the Phoebe who mentioned by Tiana before.

Working with Tiana and Natalie makes me feel like I am a Hong Kong people who never go to UK to study, because Tiana is not familiar in reading Cantonese and Natalie looks like foreigner XD
But the only problem is everyone will get confused about which one of us can read Cantonese, and therefore they will ask this question every time "You know how to read Cantonese right?"

Let talk about some interesting moments during my internship.

It is so lucky that I have chance to see dolphin sky-hopping at the second day of my internship and it seems like looking straight into my eyes. During that time, I was searching for dolphins and suddenly one of the dolphins sky-hopping and I  feel so exciting because I never see that so close by my own eyes, I become speechless at that moment. After that, Vincent and Heyman said that I was the only one have eye contact with the dolphins, then I realized I forgot to say hi to the dolphin, if I do so maybe it will remember me and come over every time I go there. (Day-dreaming ><)

Oh yes, another interesting moment is to listen  every single word when others are gossiping quietly, you will get lots of information about everyone including eating habit (some of them like to eat a lot, basically everything while some do not like to eat vegetable XPP) or relationship between different people (so you can laugh or involve when they are gossiping about one particular person)

It is so happy for me to get involve into this big family and just forgive me for not speaking sometimes, this funny working environment makes me feel more comfortable and looking forward to the following months.

Let's fight together for dolphins in the coming month!!!