What’s Happening to the Pink Dolphins?
By Vanessa Chung 8J
About Pink Dolphins
Hong Kong’s Western harbour
(usually north of Lantau Island)
has about 120 pink dolphins
(Chinese White Dolphins).
However these dolphins are dying
due to many reasons humans
create.
These dolphins found in Hong Kong are isolated population
• Reclamation
from South Africa to Australia and is now in the coast of China.
These dolphins has a unique colour: They’re born almost black
• Over Fishing
then quickly turns light grey and afterwards slowly turns pink or
• Boat Traffic
white.
• Sewage
Dolphins Body
Males grow 8.4 feet and weigh 345
pounds.
Females grow 6.6 feet and weigh
217 pounds.
Lives for around 35
years
Reclamation
The construction of our airport a long time ago has killed
a lot of dolphins, since it’s built at North Lantau where the
dolphins live. More dolphins will be killed since Hong
Kong reclaims a lot of land. The mud from the reclamation
is dumped in the seabed and it does also destroy
dolphins habitat.
Over Fishing
Dolphins eat small fishes and crabs in the sea. Pink
dolphins has about 30 teeth. All of those teeth are in
the front.
Hong Kong’s unregulated fishing fleet is fishing up
nearly all of the dolphin’s food. This is not the only
way of killing the dolphins. There were several dead
dolphins which had been in the fishing net or tangled
in the fishing net.
Sewage
Around 150,000 cubic meters of raw sewage (not
treated), is thrown out to the western harbour every
day. This is ruining the habitat of the every kind of
dolphins which live there. People predicts that
there’ll be 700.000 cubic meters of raw sewage will
be dumped in the sea every day by 2010. All of the
toxic wastes such as cleaning fluids, bacteria and
viruses can affect the dolphins directly.
Boat Traffic
Pink dolphins try to swim as far away from the
boat as possible however, up to 70 vessels
every hour, passes through areas where pink
dolphins can be frequently found.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this power point shows the main reasons of why and how
the pink dolphins are dying so quickly. Pink dolphins is one of Hong Kong
speciality and that is why we should save them. There isn’t much we can
do in the reclamation, sewage, etc. part however we can at least try and
eat less fish and leave some fish for them to eat. There are also many
other ways for us to save the pink dolphins however what you do is up to
you.
Bibliography
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http://www.wiu.edu/users/emp102/DolphinWeb/endangered_dolphin.htm,
13/10/08
• Unknown, Pink Dolphins, Animals and Nature on Squidoo,
http://www.squidoo.com/pinkdolphins , 6/11/08
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http://www.amersol.edu.pe/ms/7th/7block/jungle_research/new_cards/14/report
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http://mymandyplace.blogspot.com/2008/04/pink-dolphins.html, 6/11/08
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http://www.crystalinks.com/dolphin.html, 6/11/08
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