Saving Wildlife

Marine life experts say that rare pink dolphins in Hong Kong are struggling to survive, as construction work on a 31-kilometre-long bridge linking Hong Kong and mainland China disrupts communication and feeding between these social animals. The white Chinese dolphin, which appears pink due to the blood vessels under its skin, was the official mascot for the ceremony to hand over Hong Kong, a former British colony, to China in 1997. But major projects, including work on the $19 billion bridge across the mouth of the Pearl River, threaten these animals, whose number has shrunk by nearly 80 percent to just 47 dolphins. "The construction of this bridge has a very negative impact on dolphins and has caused a significant decline in their numbers," said Samantha Lee, a group official at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Hong Kong. She added that it has become difficult to monitor this species of dolphins in nearby waters. Increased maritime traffic around Hong Kong, pollutants and overfishing have contributed to the destruction of their habitats. Read also: A British park celebrates six new dogs from an endangered species Watch: Mummified extinct and rare animals at the Zoological Museum in Giza Lindsay Porter, a researcher at SMRU, a marine mammal research consultancy in Hong Kong, said that increased underwater noise due to construction work makes it difficult for these animals to feed and communicate. She added, "When noise increases underwater, you not only prevent dolphins from searching for food, but you also prevent them from communicating with each other." She stated that more than half of the dolphins spotted showed signs of suffering, such as skin lesions and diseases caused by stress and high noise levels. In an email response to Reuters, the Hong Kong Department of Environmental Conservation said that the decline in dolphin numbers is a complex issue that requires further data analysis and close monitoring. "In order to provide greater protection for Chinese white dolphins in Hong Kong, the government intends to urgently allocate more marine space to them," she added. For more on Euronews: Animal rights activists protest in Spain before a bull festival A species of kangaroo faces death in Australia due to a fence on a road