Save the Dolphins & Protect the Environment

"The environment is, arguably, our only legacy to our children; and during our brief span of life it is our duty to protect and conserve it, so that the following generations may find it even more worth cherishing."
– Brian Morton: The future of the Hong Kong Seashore, 1979

22-9-2011 - How much do you know about the cruelty surrounding keeping the largest species of dolphins orcas in captivity?
To learn more, please click here for Humane Society International Dr Naomi Rose's report.


25-7-2011 - Threats endangering the survival of Hong Kong’s dolphins

There are so many threats endangering the survival of Hong Kong’s dolphins, the following are the major ones:

Pollution (The following data is old, it is very difficult to get hold of updated figures but they are sure to be much higher.)

  • Every day, Hong Kong produces 2 million tonnes of liquid waste, and 22,500 tonnes of solid or semi-solid waste. 70% of this is untreated.

  • About 450,000 cubic metres of raw, semi-processed sewage is dumped into the harbour every day, enough to fill 200 Olympic size swimming pools.

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Continue to read...

25-6-2011 - Please help to stop shocking dolphin cruelty - from WDCS

Click here to view the article from WDCS

Response to the article published in the SCMP City section entitled “Plea for sightseers to give whale space”

The arrival of a humpback whale in Hong Kong waters has created great interest and  excitement  over the last few days, suggesting that we might be interested in marine life as a source of something  other than food.

Experts are quite right to ask  people  NOT to head out to sea looking  for  the whale- this is a lone creature who needs to be given space to find its way back to its usual route and we can only reiterate what has been said so far.

It is  ironic  that we can't afford the same due care to our own Chinese White Dolphins - no one seems to care that the waters around Tai O have become a playground for pile-em-high, sell-em-cheap  boats  that go speeding into the dolphins' habitat with no regard for the animals or  the  AFCD’s Code of Conduct for Dolphin Watching. The  situation  in that area is unacceptable, yet complaints to  government  departments  go round in circles with no one willing to act.

Perhaps our interest in marine life is actually as a source of  amusement, with no respect shown for these creatures? Let us hope that the humpback whale has realized that this is no place for cetaceans, and has had a luckier  escape  than our resident species, who have no place to hide.

Janet Walker
Hong Kong Dolphinwatch

Saving Dolphins (by Janet Walker)

The Marine Department's comment that dolphins are smart and know how to get out of the way of oncoming high speed ferries (June 2nd, 2007) shows an amazing lack of knowledge or concern for the environment under their care. We humans are upposed to be smart, yet thousands of us are killed by vehicles every year - it's the same problem: too much traffic & too many careless drivers.


Unfortunately, as Gordon Andreassend points out (June7th), there are many other problems to address too, if we want to think about saving the dolphins. Along with the existing problems of under-treated sewage, ferry traffic, over-fishing and net entanglement, everything now on the drawing board for Lantau needs to be reassessed. The Lantau Concrete (sorry, Concept) Development Plan is a piecemeal notion that talks of developing the north while "creating" eco-tourism in the south. We already HAVE eco tourism in the north - and it wasn't artificially created, the dolphins are indigenous inhabitants - but they get in the way of "progress". Has anyone ever done an EIA on the cumulative effects of all the development being thrown Lantau's way? From the airport and Disney through to the Macau-Zhuhai bridge, the Exxon-CLP 38 km pipeline from the Sokos to Black Point, and container terminal 10 at Tai O - these are all just a few more nails in the dolphins' coffin. It is ironic that in the UN International Year of the Dolphin and the 10th anniversary of the Handover year (remember the cute pink mascots?), those nails are going in as fast as we can hammer them.


Janet Walker
Hong Kong Dolphinwatch