My First Month in Hong Kong

Hey everyone!

My name is Mairead and I am currently the newest intern at HKDCS! I decided to apply for this internship to help with my decision as to whether or not I should go back to university and do my masters. So far I have been here a month and I am really enjoying myself! Each week and even day, is so different! Whether its a new survey area, a new weather condition to deal with or even a new type of survey it was been really amazing! It has been great to really get first hand experience as to what researchers do and how they go about doing it.

Because I have had so many different amazing experiences since I have been here I thought that I would just list a few of them to give you an idea of what I've been so lucky to experience;

1. The first time I saw a Porpoise was so cool! These mammals are so shy and are hard to see, so it was really exciting! I have found myself becoming more and more curious about them every time I am lucky enough to see them!

2. One day when we were out in Porpoise waters we saw Porpoise proposing! From the little we know about them this was considered totally out of character because as I said before they are considered to be such shy mammals!

3. My first dolphin sighting was a special moment for me, as I felt like I was really one of the team! I'd be lying if I said I didn't get excited and possibly jump up and down :D

4.The first time I saw a dolphin calf was also very special. It is amazing to see just how small they really are and it is great to see that renewal of life of these stunning mammals!

5. One day we were completely surrounded by Porpoise! I am talking about in ever direction and everywhere! There must have been about 25 of them surrounding us and it was awesome to see so many of them and to know that they are still out there :)

6. The people that I have met and have been lucky enough to work with while I have been here is a huge highlight! This whole experience would not have been the same without them. It has been great to learn from them, as they are so experienced, to see their passion for these amazing mammals and also to makes friends with them! Some of them are leaving us soon and I can already say that they will really be missed!

I could continue on for ages about all the great things I have seen and experienced while I have been here but I think I will leave it at that for now and will try and update you all again soon!

Mairead :)

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. 

Overdue Update!

Hello people!  Long time no write!  My apologies!

Life here has been pretty busy with the holidays, new projects and new people.  Since it's been about 7 weeks since my last blog and pictures are worth more than a thousand words, here's a showcase of some of the stuff that has been going on:

HKDCS had an opportunity to introduce the Chinese White Dolphin (CWD), Finless Porpoise and their conservation concerns to people from all over the world at the Diving Resort Travel Expo in December.  Divers: don't get excited, because diving with dolphins here in Hong Kong would be a suicide adventure--high speed ferries everywhere and even dolphins have close calls avoiding them!  I'm sure the guests at the expo were impressed and learned something new, though.

The cetaceans of Hong Kong decided to take a break for New Year's, so we all got together for lunch on the 31st.  Here's a brief and somewhat silly introduction of the team, from left to right:

• Sammy: Samuel's wife and HKDCS committee member.
• Samuel: the main man.
• Enoch: the prince of the kingdom. Loves pizza.
• Vincent: senior research assistant. Has dolphin ID numbers better memorized than his own HK ID. hahaha.
• Perry: the only one who isn't visually impaired but wears fake glasses to look good.  Also pretty on top of his game and is a well-seasoned research assistant here.
• 3 semi-newbies: Recent university graduates, they started this job 1-2 weeks before my arrival. Real fun group, with Tony and his love stories, Karen who acts like a big sister sometimes and Ellis who says things twice twice to be cute cute.
• Leo: former-intern-now-employee!! He's also well experienced at this job.  Likes a good laugh, as witnessed from watching Schwarzenegger's Last Stand with him the other week.
• And me!

There are 3 more newbies and others on the team, but as their pictures are lacking, please use the this picture below as reference:

Once again from left to right:

• Theresa: long-time worker who has returned to Hong Kong from England.
• Michelle: the Homo sapien in the front. A fellow American who's just as chatty as me and is going to be a grad student pretty soon and soon-to-be a HK cetacean expert.
• Newbies: Taison, Leon and Jackin. The three are HK residents, just like these lovely dolphins in the picture who like to hang out with Michelle.

Now, time for some real dolphins!  With many days doing land-based and vessel surveys, dolphins have been everywhere!  Yes, the days can be long and tiresome, but we never seem to tire of these guys.  I would like to show off some pictures that I took myself while on duty, so here they are:

Dolphins!!!!

Oh, and a lovely pic from Vincent.  I love babies!!!  Hoi tuen bibi!!!

The End :-)

Intern Veronica: 3rd Week

Greetings again!

I've concluded my third week at HKDCS and all is well.  The other day, it was my first official tryout for observing and I was lucky to get two dolphin sightings in a row (I still missed a few, though :-P).  

When I say lucky, I really do mean it, by the way.  These dolphins can be anywhere at any given time.  Yes, they are resident species, but they can be together or alone, following a shrimp trawler, hanging out near an island, or riding a wave somewhere.  Looking for dolphins isn’t like tracking deer in a forest; this is a much bigger area and there aren't that many of them, after all.  When surveying, there is no set day for where we go or which day we go, and dolphins don't have a Monday through Friday schedule either.  Starting our trip from the west or the east, and sitting down and looking to the left first with the naked eye or to the right with binoculars and at that same exact moment catching a dolphin surfacing is all a result of chance.  Don't get me wrong, it's not like we have trouble finding dolphins—this team seems to do quite well at that—but because we are all aware of this chance, whenever we do see a dolphin, we get pretty excited about it. :-)

I think that’s what I like about cetacean research.  It seems like no one here ever tires of a dolphin sighting.  With normal day-to-day, 9-to-5 jobs, daily events can be pretty repetitive and boring, but when dealing with animals, every event feels new and refreshing.  I think it is because of this feeling that I am reminded of why I enjoy the kind of work I've been doing and why I wanted to give cetacean work a try.

...Since we’re talking about luck, I have to say that Hong Kong is lucky to have cetaceans along these waters just outside their cities.  I mean, take a look at Hong Kong’s landscape:

Except for the mountains in the background, it kind of looks like New York City, doesn’t it?  It’s surprising that marine megafauna are still here!  Hong Kong is a busy place with not only busy streets, but busy waterways, as well.  Yet, with all this development and land reclamation that’s going on, it won’t be luck that keeps the dolphins here for much longer.  Conservation and management schemes will be what keep them around in the near future.   

The countdown to the end of trawling in these waters has already begun (end of 2012), but that’s only a start.  If no other actions are done, people will begin counting down to the end of these lovely creatures, too.

One other thing: I still haven’t seen a Finless Porpoise yet!!  Oh well.  Better luck next time!  Hahaha

Over and out.

Intern Veronica 2012: 1st Week

Hello, everyone.  My name is Veronica Frans and I am a new intern here at HKDCS.  I am doing this internship in order to fulfill a requirement for the second semester of my grad school program.  I am from New Jersey, USA and study International Nature Conservation at Georg-August Universität, Göttingen, Germany (www.uni-goettingen.de/minc).  My past 3 years have been spent doing research aboard commercial fishing vessels in Alaska for the US National Marine Fisheries Service. Fish, marine mammals and coastal marine environments are greatly interesting to me.  As languages are my hobby and I love working with people as well, I hope to one day work in community-based conservation programs throughout the world for the sake of marine conservation. Already gaining new skills important for such a goal, I know after my first week here that I was really lucky to find HKDCS and be accepted into this program.

The HKDCS team is relatively small, but they accomplish a lot each day.  It has actually grown fairly recently, so I'm not the only newbie here; the organization has 3 new research assistants, so we're all learning together.  The dolphin research mainly consists of vessel surveys and land-based theodolite surveys.  There is, of course, office work for data entry and analysis as well.  I was a bit enthusiastic and ready to jump to work right away, but Samuel, the chairperson and lead researcher for HKDCS, had me sit back and observe first.  When I was later handed binoculars and a range finder with which to practice, I then realized that I have a ways to go before I considering myself ready to sit in the observer chair.  Looking for cetaceans isn't just some opportunistic, hap-hazard thing; there's a protocol and it is strictly followed here.

A funny note: what everyone has jokingly called my first dolphin sighting wasn't of a white adult or a grey calf.  Instead, it was of a golden one, as seen here:

I asked everyone what that dolphin was for and they quickly turned around, ready to take photos as though it were for the survey.  I was glad they didn't go as far as to stop the boat for it, or I would've been really embarrassed by the misunderstanding.  Hahaha.  My next sighting was a bit more exciting though, and I was proud that I found a real one all by myself.  They're pretty fast!

I was assigned to join a dolphin watching tour this week and it seems that people from all over the world enjoy them.  They're playful creatures and seeing such an animal perform at a dolphin show is nothing compared to observing their behavior in the wild.  A few were feeding and porpoising the other day and it was awesome to hear the tourists gasp in awe and point in excitement.  Check out what we saw:

I have to say that after seeing them in person, the Chinese White Dolphin is indeed a beautiful Hong Kong resident.  Based on the conservation concerns that I've learned about thus far, though, let's hope these creatures stick around for future generations to enjoy as well.

Until next time!

Jane's Internship 2012

As my four-month summer holiday in Hong Kong began to draw to a close, so did my research internship at HKDCS.

The past two months had certainly been the highlight of this summer, not to mention being the most memorable and inspiring internship that I have yet attended over the past few years. At HKDCS no two days are the same. We can never know what we will see on a particular trip, be it one calmly surfacing porpoise or a large pod of socializing dolphins; and be it our first or last day, seeing these mammals can never fail to enthuse us. For me, what makes HKDCS so different from the many other organizations at which I have previously worked is this expectation for the unpredictability that made my every single day at HKDCS so unforgettable.

There were so many memorable experiences that I could not possibly name them all, ranging from the petitions outside Ocean Park and the Japanese Consulate Council, to the once-in-a-lifetime hike up Lung Kwu Chau, and to the discovery of a porpoise carcass on my penultimate day of work. Never had I seen a live porpoise in its entire form during the two months, and to see a carcass of this species was truly one overwhelming experience for me. It made me realise for the first time how real and close these animals are to us humans, and how vulnerable they are to the dangers that the human presence poses for them.

HKDCS is a truly wonderful organization, with amazing people working together towards a beautiful goal of protecting our lovable Chinese white dolphins and finless porpoises in the seas. I am missing everyone and the dolphins here in England, and will definitely be back soon for a visit!

James's Summer Internship

Hello everyone!

I was a summer intern at HKDCS from mid-July to mid-September and am now writing this from Southampton in the UK just after term has started. Since I've finished my internship, I couldn't stop thinking about all the dolphins and porpoises that I've seen over the summer. While time flies when you're conducting surveys, this internship has made this one of my most fulfilling summers to date, allowing me to contribute to some valuable research being done on the Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin and the Finless Porpoise.

There were some challenging times during those two months. We had to get up early for land-based surveys, getting exposed under the searing heat of the sun on most days, fighting seasickness on a regular basis during boat surveys etc. Though this may put some people off, the minute you see a group of dolphins always puts a smile on my face, and I forget about the harsh conditions that I was working in.

I can't really pick out any highlights during my internship, because I have so many wonderful memories of active dolphins giving us a magnificent show during surveys, much better than any 'show' from captive dolphins. One particular highlight, though, was seeing a newborn calf during one of our land-based observations. It was possibly the cutest thing that I have ever seen.

Anyway, for anyone looking for a challenge, and hoping to contribute to the survival of these magnificent dolphins, an internship with the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society is definitely worth it. All the staff are very friendly and will help you with any problems, and you gain valuable insight in how marine mammal research is conducted and get to take part in it. Also, it sounds cool when you tell all your friends that you've been doing dolphin research over the summer.

To anyone whose thinking about becoming an intern at HKDCS, stop thinking and start applying!