MamaCez: Treasured and Protected

[Continued HK series #5 of 10]

HK is a SAR (special administrative region) of the People's Republic of China for the past 15 years. Before then it was a colony of the British Empire. It is located on China's southern coast and is enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea. It has a land mass of 426 sq miles (which is equivalent to the city of Los Angeles). But LA has a population of 3.7 million while HK has over 7 million. Plus HK has about 70% of it's land as UNdeveloped. Yep.. you read that correctly. A significant part of it's land are forests, reservoirs and undeveloped or unusable lands.

We have mainly ventured around the Kowloon and Hong Kong Island areas of HK which are the most urban areas of HK.

The light green colored area is HK; dark green is PRC

If you get out of both those city areas with the hustle and bustle of crowds and tourists, you will see and appreciate the beauty of another part of HK... it's wildlife and the islands, specifically Discovery Bay (or DB).

It is here near Lantau Island that we find the chinese white dolphin (aka indo-pacific humpback species or the pink dolphin.

These pink dolphins were discovered in the early 90's when a remote undeveloped island called Chek Lap Kok island was transformed into the current HK International Airport. Unbeknownst to the developer, when they started to construct and build, they, in actuality, disrupted the dolphin's major habitat. It was here they became known and organizations like HK DolphinWatch Ltd. were founded to help raise awareness of these pink dolphins.

I hung out at the tip of the boat to see if I could spot a fin or tail.

We headed for a three hour tour to search for these local dolphins. It took us over 2 hours but we found some and they were beautiful.

Emily, Shawna, Hannah and Marcus checking out the waters... and gloomy skies. That's not fog people.. it's pollution!

The dolphins are born dark gray and are about one meter long. Within a few months babies 'fade' to light gray then over the next few years the gray slowly disappears eventually leaving grey spots on the white or pink body. It is believed that the pink color is caused by 'blushing' (or flushing blood to the outer layers of the skin for regulation of body temperature).

We spot some!! Notice how close they swim to land.

We saw a baby with it's mama.

Bright pink mama dolphin

Everyone was thrilled to finally see some!

Unfortunately these dolphins continue to be significantly threatened by numerous factors:
- Destruction of their habitats: they live in the Pearl River Delta and it is this area that is influenced by an explosion of economic development. For example their homeland was destroyed due to the creation of the new airport.
- Over fishing: the continuous destruction of shorelines has destroyed a huge area of important fish breeding ground thus the dolphins' food source is further depleted; also dolphins are caught in fishing net.
- Heavy sea traffic: dolphins have to be aware of passenger and freight traffic; many are injured or killed by a boat and the loud noises from the boat's engines greatly affect their echolocation abilities.
- Pollution: this promotes a high infant death rate; HK flushes about 2 million tons of sewage into the sea daily, approximately 400 million liters of it goes directly into north Lantau where the dolphins are found. Also more sewage comes down from the Pearl River which is from 1/8th of China's population.

It saddens me that these beautiful creatures are not being more protected. If this was in the States, Greenpeace and/or animal rights groups would be having a firestorm! Plus the waters sound disgusting! I would NOT want to swim in these waters!

On Lantau Island, you can take a Cable Car Ride in the sky to see the mountainous areas of the island along with Tung Chung Bay.

We boarded a crystal glass bottom cable car so we can really enjoy the view!

The kids had a fun time and were not fazed by the glass bottom nor the moving cable car high in the sky.

It was a beautiful clear day to see a part of HK that we have never seen before.

After we landed, we checked out the big Budda on the island and walked through the Ngong Ping Village (a re-creation of the Ngong Ping area.. filled with lots of souvenir shops)

Afterwards we had the great opportunity to have a taste of Discovery Bay, a semi-private residential area of HK. I say semi-private because cars and taxis are not allowed in this area. A convenient bus system serves this little community along with, if needed, golf carts for residents.

It spans about 1,600 acres and includes two bays. It has a population of around 18,000 residents with a significant part of them being expatriated from all over the world.

Willie's sister, Wendy, and her family call DB their home. They graciously gave us a tour of their much loved community.