Monday, October 19, 2015
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The Chinese University rowing team has completed a round trip to Macau to draw public attention to the plight of dolphins.
It's the first time in recent memory that boats have been rowed across the Pearl River Estuary in both directions.
The seven men and three women in five boats left Hong Kong on Saturday morning and braved rough seas and strong currents on the 45-kilometer trip, arriving at Hac Sa Beach on Coloane at around 5pm.
They left Macau at 6am yesterday and arrived at Tai O in Hong Kong about 4pm. During their trip, the team came across two white dolphins.
While the university team completed their trip without problems, some of their escorts ran into trouble.
Eleven support team members, including two reporters, failed to get to the chartered junk as they could not find a lighter to take them to the boat. When they tried to leave from Coloane pier, they were prevented by Macau immigration staff.
Eventually they left by lighter from the Macau Water Sports Club at 10am before successfully getting on to the junk.
The whole trip took about 20 hours and ChineseU vice chancellor Joseph Sung Jao-yiu was at Tai O for the welcoming ceremony. The event also raised HK$90,000 for Chinese white dolphin conservation by the World Wide Fund.
"The donation period will end on October 31 but we are confident of meeting the target of HK$100,000," a spokeswoman said.
KENNETH LAU
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http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=162323&sid=45395971&con_type=3&d_str=20151019
