He recorded them with the words “the Porpoises here are as white as Milke, some of them Ruddy with all” and which older individuals certainly are. The species was not, however, described until 1765 by Pehr Osbeck (1723–1805) find more a Swedish explorer, naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778). Being an estuarine coastal species, concern for the welfare of

Hong Kong’s population of the dolphins grew in the early 1990s as the Pearl River Delta became the principal artery for maritime trade between Hong Kong, Macau, Canton (now Guangzhou) in China, and as more individuals were killed and stranded. It is, today, estimated that fewer than 140 individuals survive in the polluted, over-fished and maritime trade waters of Hong Kong’s western territory – the type locality of the species. In 2011, I was incredibly lucky to glimpse the, also as Ruddy with all, Amazon (although it also occurs in the Orinoco) river dolphin, Inia geoffrensis, and which is now protected under Brazilian law as a national treasure. Again, spellbound. I do not go to performing dolphin or killer whale (Orcinus orca)

shows but I did once, again on a research trip, visit Monkey Mia in the Shark Bay National Park and World Heritage Site in Western Australia to see the famously ‘tame’ but still wild dolphins there. These are a group of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) that, every morning, come close see more inshore to be fed by park wardens to the enjoyment of the hundreds of thousands of tourists who come each year to watch and learn a little. Early problems involved in allowing the public to

feed the animals, resulted in mothers not teaching their calves to catch fish for themselves, and dying before being weaned. Ribonucleotide reductase Today, however, many lessons learnt, research on the dolphins, encompassing thousands of hours of systematic data collection in the field, makes Monkey Mia one of the most important cetacean research centres in the world. Hundreds of dolphins are surveyed and cataloged each year. Their behaviour, ecology, genetics, development, communication, social structure, predators, and prey are all researched and, what is more, this is all accomplished non-invasively, without tagging, touching or capturing the dolphins. And the public love it too. Hence, in a long career as a marine biologist, I have seen many species of dolphins in the wild, some protected, some not, some endangered and others, apparently, enjoying contact with human beings. They share a close historical bond with us and live on in our human psyche to such an extent that ‘wish list’ surveys regularly put swimming with them close to the top. The ancient Greeks and Romans revered dolphins. Both cultures had stories of a boy and a dolphin.