Rare Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins have been spotted in the waters off northern Taiwan, reports said yesterday.
The dolphins, which vary in color from dark grey to white and even bright pink, normally prefer shallow waters and can grow up to 2.8m long.
"These dolphins live in the waters around China and Hong Kong, but have also appeared near Taiwan," said Lee Ming-hua (
"Their numbers have been dwindling steadily due to pollution and destruction of habitat."
Lee said that over the past six years, four of the species were found stranded in northern Taiwan and the offshore island of Kinmen, but only one had been successfully returned to the ocean.
Local media reported the sighting of three Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins this week, some 200m off the coast of Miaoli County.
A rare visitor to Taiwan, less than 1000 hump-backed dolphins are believed to be left in China's Pearl River Delta, including Hong Kong, according to an environmentalist at the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation in Hong Kong.
The Pearl River joins the sea between Hong Kong and Macau, after draining an area holding roughly one-eighth of China's population, bringing industrial effluent, municipal waste, and agricultural runoff.
Little was known about the dolphins until the early 1990s, when seabed reclamation and construction of Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok airport began.
Campaigners at the World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong brought media attention to the plight of the dolphins, prompting the Hong Kong Government to provide funds for extensive research into the marine mammals.
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