Matt's Intership---2012 Summer

大家好, 我係summer intern Matthew.  我o係HKDCS已經做o左三個月喇!
呢三個月除o左學到好多關於海豚嘅知識同埋點去conduct survey外, 我覺得最特別係可以接觸好多同survey以外嘅事物。

Intern嘅第二日我地就跟o左Samuel去主持一個press condference, 咁大個仔都無去過press conference,所以係個全新嘅體驗, 個press conference係關於第三條跑道同高速船點影響海豚嘅數目、行為。

 

記者會上見到Smauel即使面對記者們尖銳嘅問題, 仍然係耐心解答, 令我都知道自己要做多d reading, 充實自己!





 

 

Internship嘅第三個星期, 一間本地電視台跟o左我地出海, 佢地同Samuel做o左訪問, 探討港珠澳大橋嘅填海工程對海豚有咩影響。

 

 

兩個星期後, 節目播出, 我竟然o係電視見到自己呀!

去到七月中, 就到o左學會一年一度嘅書展喇!

 

書展期間, 我地要不斷同客人講解介紹佢地有興趣嘅書籍; o係工餘時間我都有刻意閱讀書展有展示嘅書籍, 好讓自己o係介紹嘅時候能夠更準確同生動。今年嘅書展有賴眾員工、intern同義工嘅努力, 得以成功圓滿結束!

 

Internship嘅最後一日, 我地去o左日本領事館嘅位址請願, 希望日本停止捕鯨!

Save Japan's Dolphins; Stop the Slaughter!

 

 

 

我好慶幸o係自己internship嘅最後一日仍然可以為海豚出一分力, 我地派嘅每一張傳單、每一本書仔其實都希望市民正式海豚所面對嘅問題, 期間我地亦有向途人解釋人工餵養帶俾海豚嘅問題。

除o左呢d大型活動, 我都試過去中小學幫手做學會講talk嘅helper; o係HKDCS做intern除o左學識好多scientific嘅知識外, 亦擴闊o左自己嘅視野; 呢三個月過得真係好有意義!

Japan Dolphins Day - 31 August 2012

Coming into the fourth week of my internship, I am delighted to have had the opportunity to participate in an event as globalised and pivotal as such!

Held across the world in as many as 88 countries, the Japan Dolphins Day protests aimed to commemorate and spread the word about the annual monstrous mass slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan, that was first put into the international spotlight by the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove. The sad fact is that the killings have yet again recommenced, and only just a few days ago. Thus on 31 August/1 September, dolphin activists from all around the globe (including major cities such as Hong Kong, Brisbane, Frankfurt, Los Angeles, London etc.) made their way to their local Japanese embassies, in the hope of drawing the attention of Japanese consuls, the media and passers-by to the plight of our defenseless dolphins.

Judging from the many befuddled expressions of the white-collar workers of Central, it dawned upon me that the lack of public participation and awareness of the heinous happenings in the quiet town of Taiji has been and still is a major contributor to the legal loophole in the regulation of Japanese fisheries. Oriented towards financial considerations and economic development (through the marketing of dolphin meat and the export of dolphins to aquariums), Japan’s development policies remains locked in for an amoral path that has little regard for the dolphins’ hardships. Indeed whilst we cannot know exactly whether and how the Japanese government will respond to the cause of the Taiji dolphins, the knowledge that we have further informed Hong Kong people and hopefully imprinted in their minds of the dolphins’ sufferings was what made 31 August a most memorable conclusion to my first month at HKDCS!

HKDCS Press Conference 2012

Hey guys! My name is Joanne and I have been working at the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society as a new research intern since April.

       Today I would like to share a few photos that I had taken in the early June, when HKDCS held a press conference regarding our Chinese White Dolphins.

Welcome to the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society Press Conference!

 Have you guys ever been to a press conference before? I was so excited that day as it was my first time going to a press conference and seeing so many journalists!

 Photo time before the press conference started!

 Our society's chairman, Samuel, was showing different photos to the journalists and explaining how high speed ferry is posing a serious threat to our local Chinese White dolphin population.

After the press conference, Samuel was getting tons of questions from the journalists.

Here are two online media articles released after the press conference. Check it out!

- Study finds ferry threat to Hong Kong dolphins

- 大嶼山高速船航道 白海豚數量銳減

The bystander effect.

One of Hong Kong's remaining mega-fauna: The Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin (印度太平洋駝背豚 [Pronunciation: Yun Doe Tai Ping Yeung Tor Bui Tuen]), Scientific name: Sousa chinesis, also known as the Chinese White Dolphin (中華白海豚 [Pronunciation: Jung Wah Bak Hoi Tuen]).

The current rate of development is unprecedented, with China, Hong Kong and Macau all wanting to further urbanize their regions at the expense of the natural environment; many scientists agree that the marine ecosystem is in great peril.The current developmental proposals and infrastructure projects that are facing Hong Kong's cetacean habitats alone include a third airport runway in which 650 hectares of land will be reclaimed, a massive waste incinerator next to the near-pristine Shek Kwu Chau Island, the HK-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge construction that is already underway, the HK-Shenzhen Airport Railway, and the ten proposed reclamation sites by the Hong Kong government in an effort to combat increasing human population. How much more pollution, anthropogenic threats and environmental pressures can these pink dolphins, our heavily fragmented ecosystem, and our lungs/ bodies take? Biodiversity is essential to an ecosystem's health, resilience and is also beneficial for social and economic reasons, thus there is an urgent need to conserve species for the environment itself, as well as for our future generations.

Don't be the bystander; take action whenever and wherever possible. Write letters to legislators, participate in environmental open forum events, consume less seafood and meat products, adopt a simple lifestyle with a minimal use of plastic or non-degradable materials. Re-use and recycle, or better yet, adopt a zero-waste strategy at home. Do your part and educate others, they need all the help and voice they can get if they are to survive in this relentless, anthropocentric world.

Bag the habit and

Please also take the time to view "On the trail of the Chinese White Dolphin" photo blog by photographer Peter Yuen who came on board with us on one of our HKDCS dolphin day trips. Many thanks to Peter for dedicating his time, effort, skills and writing a blog post to inspire others to help our dolphins!
http://www.peteryuenphotography.com/Blog/Hong-Kong-Dolphin-Conservation/21688720_CR9BrF
and the following link for more flipper bubbles and splashing photos!
http://www.peteryuenphotography.com/Animals/Pink-Dolphins/21686543_XBGwG6#!i=1730029092&k=Xnh7nvz
All print proceeds from his Hong Kong Pink Dolphins gallery page will go to HKDCS! They make beautiful and thoughtful gifts for any season! :) Enjoy!

Good luck!

My 2 month internship has come to an end and I am now writing from Sydney after finishing some university assessments, now thinking about our pink dolphins and finless porpoises, my colleagues at the HKDCS, my family, my dog and the state of the remaining environment in Hong Kong. Working at HKDCS was a joyous and thrilling experience. Finally meeting the wild pink HK dolphins and porpoises, as well as the HKDCS colleagues that I have known for a while only via Facebook since the Blue-fin tuna and other captivity protest events was the highlight. In both cases, it was not at all a disappointment. They were all very friendly, intelligent, helpful and caring souls hehehe J

At times, the job was challenging, such as waking up early to catch the 730am bus to Tai O in Tung Chung for field work (Future interns must remember to sleep early!), getting your eyes and brain accustomed to looking through the binoculars while the boat flings you around during windy days around Lamma Island (If you feel sick, don’t be afraid to let the colleagues know!), trying to stay awake under the effects of drowsy motion-sickness pills (for some, this pill is a gift and is an easier and less harsh way of allowing your body to adapt to hours on a moving boat), persuading parents to buy nature books for their nature-knowledge starved kids at the book stall (wonderful and rare to see that some parents actually take the time out to go on nature walks. They identify species and cross-check from their photographs what they’ve seen during the walks from our nature books with their children- very sweet!), explaining to people that captivity kills, is cruel and is not a good way of conserving species ( (._.) ), as well as deciding which student has their arm raised the highest hence deserving the mic to answer a question during our monthly school visits (this was a very difficult task! :P). 

But please don’t be put off by this long list of challenges! Seeing wild dolphins and porpoises swimming freely, porpoising, spy-hopping and splashing about as well as being on the HKDCS team and knowing that I am working with them to safe-guard the environment for the species and our future generations was all worth it. I guarantee that any future intern who will work with the HKDCS team will enjoy their experience and gain plenty of invaluable knowledge and skills!

Here’s my good luck to the next intern! J

A Sea Turtle Love Story

When two Loggerhead turtles finally meet in this vast and unrelenting ocean, it's really one of nature's greatest events; only about "one in ten thousand make it that far". Then they would go separate ways and the female would begin her incredible and tiresome journey alone in finding suitable nesting sites for her eggs, guided by her instincts and unwavering motivation.

This is not a turtle leisurely strolling on the beach; this is a female turtle almost completing her maternal duties. It's not easy work at all for such a heavily built marine animal walking on land.

A mother turtle's treasures.

Most of the turtles that have survived the merciless onslaught from sea birds, crabs and other predators when they were babies bear horrible anthropogenic scars when they reach adulthood. They are constantly subject to an almost never-ending list of threats (as with most wildlife): pollution and oil spills, hunting, exploitation, habitat fragmentation, injuries from vessel contact, entanglement from long-line fishing, plastic bags and other rubbish dumped at sea, climate change as well as threats from their own natural predators.

Love at first sight.

I re-watched the 'love' scene from the Turtle documentary on the plane over and over again because it is so beautiful and emotional, although I was disappointed to find out that it was funded by Seaworld. Nevertheless, this is a great film that documents the life of a turtle that begins from when it was a little hatchling crawling out from its underground nest- so strong and well-oriented yet so fragile, with it's survival depending on pure luck.

Plastic bags are one of the leading causes of marine animal deaths.

Away from this wonderful and bittersweet sea turtle story and onto captivity issues: Surely SeaWorld would know and understand that turtles are made to travel and not to be kept at aquariums? Marine parks and aquariums do have its conservation and educational value, but it's cruel and the significance is small compared with seeing animals in the wild, through documentaries or conserving the immediate environment. Placing animals -especially those that are migratory or highly intelligent such as dolphins and turtles- in captivity for profitable reasons often means stealing them from the wild; it is appalling and disconcerting as it is illustrative of the ill values we are teaching our future generations.

Christie Wong

Baby Dolphin Music Video (HONG KONG EDITION)

[A video I took during our dolphin survey trip on Saturday 7th January 2012. :) I am so glad Youtube allowed me to upload this with the "Cuppy cake" background song so I didn't have to sing this myself. :p]

Chinese White Dolphins are actually better known as Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphins (aka Sousa chinesis/ Pink dolphins)- they are also found in other coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific region and NOT just in Chinese waters as the local name "Chinese White Dolphin" falsely suggests. The numbers of these dolphins in the Pearl River Estuary (Hong Kong included) are not of great concern at the moment and it would probably be incorrect to say that they will be driven to extinction very rapidly in the next few years.

On the other hand, Taiwan's pink dolphin population are dangerously low and they are now listed as critically endangered. It is certainly an urgent issue for them and they need our help and protection, but it is hard not to think about and worry for the future of the dolphins in our region as well, with the HK-Zhuhai-Macau bridge, proposed reclamation sites and the airport 3rd runway development underway- meaning more hazards, pollution, habitat destruction and more stress for the dolphins. :(


An informative video about the plight of Taiwan pink dolphins from http://taiwansousa.blogspot.com/

Do we humans always have to drive a species to (almost) extinction to finally realize that we are impacting negatively on their (and our) environment (and in the future, to the point of no return)?

Animals and wildlife in construction friendly places like Hong Kong and Taiwan need our help. Educate and involve yourself, your family and friends on environmental issues and voice your concerns to the government whenever possible.