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- Quote:HONG KONG — Some might think the closest you can get to eco-tourism in Hong Kong is watching a shark's fin floating in a bowl of soup. But travelers who are tired of crowded concrete sidewalks, gleaming skyscrapers and glitzy shopping malls don't need to go far to find a natural – seemingly mythical – wonder: dolphins that are as pink as bubble gum. Hong Kong is one of the best places in the world to see the dolphins, known as the Indo-Pacific humpback species. ..
Still, I decided to sign up my family for a tour with Hong Kong Dolphinwatch anyway, figuring it would be nice to spend the morning on the South China Sea regardless of whether we saw the dolphins. The tour operator said dolphins are seen on 97 percent of its trips, and you can go again for free if there are no sightings. …
Walker – who taught in Japan for six years – frequently shifted from English to fluent Japanese, since about half the group was from Japan. She said scientists don't know why the dolphins living off Hong Kong's coasts are pink. They're usually white, gray or yellow in other places, such as South Africa and northern Australia. One theory is that the dolphins lost their need for camouflage because they live in brackish water where rivers meet the sea – areas where predators like sharks aren't found, Walker said. The pink color is believed to be caused by blushing, the flushing of blood to the skin to regulate body temperature. She said there are probably 150 dolphins in Hong Kong's waters and another 200 or so off the coasts of the nearby Chinese cities of Zhuhai and Macau. But the population is struggling because of the increase in sewage, industrial pollution and the loss of habitat by massive land reclamation projects. …
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