Pink Dolphins Are Real—and Disappearing From Hong Kong | National Geographic

[Music] Well, the Chinese white dolphin is a long-term uh resident of Hong Kong waters, so it's part of our natural heritage. They are quite symbolic in our marine environment because, you know, they're very charismatic, and a lot of people love their appearance because of their pinkness. Ten years ago, we had about 158 St uh regularly used Hong Kong waters, but now we are down to about 61 dolphins left. So that's a 60% decline just within the decade.

Uh, many people imagine that Hong Kong has such a busy uh polluted harbor that you will not see any marine life here, but, uh, you know, this dolphin has been in our backyard for all these years, and they are still, uh, hanging on. [Music] Back in the '90s, in the last century, there was the original airport construction that resulted in a huge amount of habitat loss for the dolphin. So, you know, the dolphin has been affected since then.

But recently, in the last uh couple of years, uh, there's uh the construction of the Hong Kong Zhuhai-Macao Bridge that caused a lot of habitat loss and also a lot of acoustic disturbance during the bridge-building process. Looking ahead, you know, there are even more reclamation proposals. [Music] One of our major concerns uh for the dolphin is the low reproductive success, partly because of the pollution issue. You know, when uh, when the dolphin uh gives birth to the young, they need to, um, give the milk, and usually they will pass on the toxic uh substances to the baby.

[Music] I consider dolphins as my family members. You know, I've been studying them for 20 years. We recognize a lot of individuals, and you know that they are an important part of the Hong Kong community. You want them to, you know, continue to utilize Hong Kong as part of their range. So, you know, as a friend, you want to help them. But it's so important uh to keep our natural environment as pristine as possible, not only for our enjoyment but also for our future generations.

One of the most surprising things to me after working in the wild for almost 30 years is that the individuals are so distinct. You know, we tend to think of a dolphin as a dolphin as a dolphin, and they're not.