[pf] Dolphin Deaths

by Molly Williams

28 December 2000 15:13 UTC

>From Reuters News Service:

Thursday December 28 12:39 AM ET
Pollution Threatens Rare Pink Dolphin 

By Tamora Vidaillet

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Rare pink dolphins still grace Hong Kong's murky
waters, but toxic industrial
waste from China, over-fishing and massive infrastructure development
appear to be stacking the odds against
their survival.

Experts say up to 1,000 pink colored dolphins, known as Chinese White
Dolphins, may survive the
environmental ravages brought on by thriving trade and an explosive
economic boom in southern China.

 The unusual dolphin was chosen as a mascot for Hong Kong to celebrate
the return of the former British colony
 to China in 1997.

 Now the days of the endangered Pearl River Delta dolphin population
seem numbered, with environmentalists
 arguing too little is being done to ensure their survival.

 ``Nearly every single calf that is born in the Pearl river delta dies
from pollution so we are in effect losing a
 whole generation,'' local dolphin expert Lindsay Porter told Reuters.

 ``Unless concrete action is taken, we'll probably see a dramatic crash
in figures when surviving calves reach
 sexual maturity in around 10 years,'' said Porter, who works at the
Swire Institute of Marine Science.

 Porter believes as few as 180 pink dolphins survive in the Pearl River
Delta area.

 Chinese White Dolphins are from the sousa chinensis species of
cetaceans, which can be found in South Africa,
 Australia and up the Chinese Coast to the Yangtze River.

 What makes Asia's dwindling population, which lives largely in the
Pearl River Delta spanning Hong Kong and
 southern China, special is that calves are gray and turn white or pink
when adult.

 Potent Killers

 The clear, quiet waters Hong Kong's dolphins once enjoyed have become a
dumping ground for some 190,000
 cubic meters of screened but untreated raw sewage as well as industrial
waste from southern China, according
 to Dolphinwatch, a commercial tour operator which collaborates with
wildlife protection groups.

 The biggest threat, experts say, is the debilitating impact of
industrial effluents used to cool manufacturing
 equipment being flushed out of southern China's economic zones.

 Organochlorines, including the pesticide DDT which is still used in
China, have been found in dolphin tissue
 samples at alarmingly high concentrations and are destroying the
mammals' immune systems and killing off
 calves.

 The dolphins also face other threats, including heavy boat traffic even
within the confines of their 12 square
 kilometer marine park and the increasing depletion of nearby fish
stocks because of over fishing.

 A number of dolphins bare the scars of run-ins with high-speed boat
traffic and from the fishing nets of the
 territory's scarcely regulated fishing fleet.

 Land reclamation work at a planned Walt Disney theme park site on
Lantau island has also reduced food
 stocks, killing millions of fish, according to lawmaker Wong Yung-kan
who represents the fishing trade.

 Half-Baked

 Environmental awareness has improved in Hong Kong but the public at
large remains apathetic, allowing the
 government to get away with half-baked efforts to protect the Pearl
River Delta dolphins, environmentalists
 complain.

 Though Hong Kong has enacted strong legislation to protect natural
habitats from development and to conserve
 wildlife, enforcement remains a burning issue.

 Dolphinwatch guides are quick to point out that a Hong Kong marine
park, originally called a ``Dolphin
 Sanctuary,'' has lax restrictions on boating and fishing activities and
serves as a platform for Hong Kong's
 Aircraft Fuel Receiving Facility for the recently built airport in
Lantau island.

 ``Huge oil tankers dock within the marine park to offload aircraft
fuel. This poses an environmental threat to the
 dolphins,'' said volunteer Dolphinwatch guide Vivian Kwok.

 If Hong Kong's dolphins are to survive, pressure needs to be mounted on
Chinese authorities to clean up the
 environment and control the release of effluent into the sea, said
Porter.

 ``There is a lot of monitoring done by a cross-border liaison group but
little is actually done. There's no reason
 why you cannot have a clean environment and a good economy.''

 Hong Kong should be able to influence what goes on in southern China
because so many Hong Kong
 companies have invested in the mainland and use China as their
manufacturing base.

 ``It is a total cop out to say this is China's problem and not Hong
Kong's,'' she said.