March

In this month we have conducted two boat surveys respectively on 29 (Thursday) and 30 March (Friday).

29 March

We conducted a vessel survey in the South and West of Lantau Island to collect survey data. March and April (Spring) used to be the peak season for Finless porpoise occurrence in Hong Kong and South Lantau is a hotspot for Finless porpoise at this time. The collected data will help HKDCS to find out about the distribution and abundance of these animals in the area this year.

We boarded our research vessel at Aberdeen and then headed to the starting point of the Southeast survey area: Cheung Chau.

A finless porpoise that we saw on 29 March

Soon after the survey had started our research team found the first group of Finless porpoise south of Shek Kwu Chau! This was really encouraging to us (the researchers, committee members and HKDCS members), as we could be certain that the Finless porpoises had finally come back to Hong Kong this year! Then we kept sighting Finless porpoises throughout our whole survey of this area. We were really surprised at how frequently the little creatures popped up on our way through South Lantau waters! Some even swam close to our vessel! We had 15 sightings of Finless porpoises in the South Lantau area altogether (including both southeast and southwest Lantau areas), which broke the record that our researchers had observed on a single day! It is usually hard to spot and observe the Finless porpoise so the frequency of observing them that day was rather cheering!

In the late afternoon we conducted another survey in West Lantau, before finally ended our day in Tung Chung. The West Lantau survey area is the most concentrated region in Hong Kong waters for spotting Chinese white dolphins. However, we didn't have any sightings on our way back to Tung Chung.

Below is the survey data collected on 29 March:

South Lantau

The green dots on the map are locations where we have sighted the finless porpoises on 29 March. The large piece of land near the top is the Lantau Island; the two islands on the lower left are the Soko Islands; the islet near right hand side is Shek Kwu Chau; while the small land on the right is Cheung Chau.

West Lantau

30 March

The Chinese white dolphin that we saw on 30 March

HKDCS also conducted a vessel survey on March 30th in North and West Lantau, where the Chinese white dolphins are primarily distributed: In the morning we set off from Tung Chung and headed to the survey area of Western Lantau. We started the survey at Sham Wat, close to shore and continued Southward to Fan Lau, then returned Northward to Sham Wat via a more offshore route. We speculate that the dolphins tend to hang around in West Lantau in the morning and leave the area in the afternoon. However, this speculation has not yet been supported by sufficient evidence. Our second survey area was Northwest Lantau. This survey area takes our team around the beautiful islands of Sha Chau and Lung Kwu Chau and the marine park.

We had several dolphin sightings in Northwest Lantau, but less than those in West Lantau.

We did not see too many dolphin groups that day, but we still bumped into quite a number of “old buddies” that had already been recorded in our photo identification catalogue.

Below are the survey data collected on 30 March

The pink dots on the map are locations we have seen the Chinese white dolphins on 30 March. The island in the middle is Lantau Islandl, while the piece of land near the top is New Territories.

West Lantau

Northwest Lantau

Individuals that we encountered in West and Northwest Lantau on 30 March:

NL139, NL153, NL220, SL35, WL25, WL42, WL62, WL70

NL139	SL35

WL42	WL70