A Portuguese researcher considered that the return of maritime connections between Macau and Hong Kong will further threaten the survival of Chinese white dolphins in the Pearl River Delta region. Fast boat trips between the Macau peninsula and Sheung Wan, in central Hong Kong, resumed on Thursday, after almost three years of interruption due to the covid-19 pandemic.
This is bad news for dolphins, lamented the deputy director of the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Dolphins (HKDCS), after collecting equipment placed in the sea to detect sounds of mammals near Tuen Mun, in the northwest of the region Chinese administration. Vienna Mak Hei-man stressed that the maritime route “cuts in half” what is “an important habitat” for white dolphins, between the southwest tip of Lantau Island and the Soko islets, in the south of Hong Kong.
Interrupted return
The researcher said that the interruption of maritime connections between Macau and Hong Kong, as of February 2020, allowed the animals to return “much more frequently” to Soko, “a very good place for dolphins to socialize and feed their young” .
The year 2020 saw a “very significant” increase in the activity of white dolphins, including larger groups, something that left Vienna Mak Hei-man, who has been investigating these mammals for almost ten years, “very hopeful”.
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