I went dolphin watching on Friday not far from Hong Kong in the South China Sea and saw perhaps 30 pink dolphins. That’s right they were really pink – as pink as a pig!
When they came up for a breath and jumped out of the water it wasn’t for long and I didn’t manage to get any good photographs but this is what they looked like:
Photo scanned (with permission) from a Hong Kong Dolphinwatch Ltd. postcard, visit http://www.hkdolphinwatch.com.
On Friday the water didn’t look so blue. It was a murky green and our guide told us full of pollution from the Pearl River. I didn’t have any equipment for testing water quality, but the air quality was poor. This trawler emerged like a ghost ship from the smog-haze hanging over us at 11am in the morning:
The pink dolphins belong to the species Sousa chinensis also known as Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphins with a range extending throughout south east Asia and also northern Australia. Through most of its range the species is the more usual grey colour.
These Hong Kong dolphins are born grey, but mature to the pretty pink colour. Here’s a picture of a mother with its greyish baby:
Photo scanned (with permission) from a Hong Kong Dolphinwatch Ltd. postcard, visit http://www.hkdolphinwatch.com.
The dolphins suckle their young for about 3 years.
Our guide suggested there were about 1,000 of these pink dolphins off Hong Kong when they were last surveyed in 1997. She indicated that there had been no survey since but that she feared numbers were declining her biggest concern water pollution from mainland China.
The dolphins first became a conservation issue with the construction of the new airport and associated dynamiting and land reclamation at Chek Lap Kok. According to Hong Kong Dolphinwatch Ltd the next big project is a proposed 42 kilometre mega bridge linking Hong Kong, Macau and Zhuhai.
I can’t image the bridge and associated traffic will do anything but exacerbate the already poor air quality.
Photo scanned (with permission) from a Hong Kong Dolphinwatch Ltd. postcard, visit http://www.hkdolphinwatch.com.
Thanks to Hong Kong Dolphinwatch Ltd for a great day out.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
WHY ARE THEY CALLED PINK DOLPHINS?
The most likely explanation for why the humpback dolphins exhibit a pink color from time to time is that they are able to expand their blood vessels to enable themselves to thermoregulate, i.e. release body heat. The red blood vessels make the surface of the skin pink. This can be frequently seen in other dolphin species with light colored skin when the dolphin becomes flushed with excitement.
same explanation – I go pink from time to time
i think the pink dolphins are extremely cute!!! we recently did a travel unit at school and we all had to go to china. i found out about the endangered dolphins but didn’t have much time to do research on them!! thanks for explaining!!
Blogs gone soft – surely we want to eat them !
must taste like pink salmon
As one who lived in HK in the 1980s, I am bound to conclude that water quality has actually improved since then. And if this species was not wiped out through the pre-reform times on the mainland and the open slather capitalism of British rule, then they are most likely in a recovery phase now.
We lived in a little ground floor appartment just 3 metres from the high water mark on one of the off-shore islands. The HK free market version of an aged care policy at the time was to boot granny out of the family home to ensure that she didn’t die in-house and thereby seriously diminish the value of the property. So granny would end her days in a shanty made of tar paper on the edge of the settlements with no services other than a communal tap.
And each morning the old folks would saunter down the path to the nearest beach to unload, and rinse, the night bucket along with the plastic bags and other detritus of the day before. And this meant that any beach that was unlikely to be seen by tourists would be completely covered in plastic bags, bottles and wrappers etc, to the point where one could not see a scrap of sand. And even those places that had been cleaned up still had large globs of congealed oil in sand, such that no-one would ever walk on a beach bare foot.
I have not been back for a while but understand that things have improved somewhat since then. The situation was similar on the mainland. At the time foreigners still had limited access to much of the countryside but my robust command of Cantonese street vernacular was sufficient to goad minor bureaucrats into providing passes for Joan and I to visit her ancestoral home. Lucky for us it was Chinese New Year when everyone is expected to ‘hang shan’ or walk the mountain to visit the graves of the ancestors and to deny that right, even to a ‘banana’ with gwai loh, was tempting fate.
And while the fields and villages were reasonably clean, albeit squalid, the same could not be said of the less visible parts of the Pearl River, which had obviously been given that name a very long time ago.
So before we start dealing with dolphin survival in abstract we had best get a good understanding of the historical variations in pollutant levels. For there is nothing like a centrally planned economy for delivering serious threats to wildlife. A point the Koalas in our centrally planned national parks would concur.
Goodness me, doesnt Ann know a lot!
In my googling I found that in 1637 the Chinese White Dolphin (or Hong Kong pink) was first discovered in Hong Kong by an adventurer called Peter Mundy.
Interesting character Mundy, not only did he see the early Dutch Masters forming he saw the Taj Mahal during its construction, I bet he didnt let the grass grow under his feet..
Rog, I did a Google too to find this information…
Actually this pink colour on the dolphins is not very strange, probably the superficial veins dilate( vasodilation) and they lose heat in that way.
We see the same mechanism when we drink alcohol, that’s why you should never drink alcohol if stuck in a winter snow storm!!! Never drink the cognac that the St. Bernhard dog carries!
To be more precise, it is in the superfiscial network of capillares where heat exchange with the environment occurs.
I <3 PINK DOLPHINS!!!
i loove pin dolphins stop killing them immediatly there so harmless
PINK DOLPHINS ROCK! OMG! I CANT WAIT TO MEET ONE!…….STOP KILLING THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just came back from Club Med Cherating in Malaysia. We had gone for a kayaking trip just a short distance from shore when my wife claimed that she saw fins breaking the water surface. It was panic station for a moment because we think it was a shark ! Suddenly, the grey fin popped up again, followed by a pink one and another grey one, this time a full dolphin jumped out of the water! It was amazing and exciting for us to have a close encounter with these animals. The next moment we saw another group of pink and grey dolphins emerging from the water. It was interesting to note that the 2 groups of dolphins have 2 greys and one pink.
i love dolphins they r ma fave yhings
Who found the pink dolphin? I really need to know.
hi. i really looooovvvvvveeeeeee the pink Dolphins …….. did you know they have 40% more brain compasity than us?
i love pink and we need to stop killing them and any animals so there and ha so ya just stop
there so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sop killing them they are so sweet!!!!!!!!!
there so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! stop killing them they are so sweet!!!!!!!!!
where are pink dolphins found i need to no all the places they are found fro this assignment im doing for school
where are pink dolphins found i need to no all the places they are found fro this assignment im doing for school
This past weekend my husband and I, we’re living in Hong Kong, went to see the beautiful “Pink Dolphins”. Sitting in the boat with the water lapping at it’s sides and watching these truly marvelous creatures perform their dances, jumps and viewing their graceful bodies as they glide through the water left my heart a little heavy thinking about their future. Once we entered the boat and traveled a short way off shore we had to travel through a good half to a whole mile of very dense garbage, plastic, cardboard, paper and anything else that would float, before we approached the viewing area. It seems as though the water in that area is the local dumping grounds.
All the donations in the world won’t change this situation until the Chinese government steps in and makes the local people responsible. I know they have a million projects but this project (saving the pink dolphins) won’t be around unless it’s taken care of soon.
Watching these beautiful creatures is a MUST for the “HUMAN SOUL”. Thanks
this is rally good pics \
r they pink pr white
i am wrighting a paper on them
Nice post Amanda,
China’s human and animal rights record is atrocious…and continuing!!!
Your statement regarding donations is so true.
I have seen many animal rights activists groups online asking for donations to “help” the endangered pink dolphins.
As much as I support there efforts, there is only the chinese government who can ensure the ongoing protection of these beautiful creatures,
Cleaning up the filth and ensuring there environment maintains a suitable and healthy eco system for there future survival is there only chance.
As many nations in the world, have learned from there mistakes, have seen the rapid extinction of so many wild species, and are working hard to ensure the wild animals of the world are protected, there are those including China, Japan, korea etc, who importance of our wildlife pale, when there eyes see only the money trail leading to the wildlife…so sad!