Across China: An encounter with white dolphins in east China(1)

XIAMEN, June 13 (Xinhua) -- In the sea area of east China's Xiamen bay, two white and gray figures swim happily with frequent floating, rolling, and jumping.

"Look! The white one is Dabai, and the gray one is her baby. She is playing with her baby," said Wang Xianyan, a researcher at the Xiamen-based Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, as he showed a video on his mobile phone.

Dabai is a Chinese white dolphin living in Xiamen bay. The mammal is guarded under the first-class state protection in China and is included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in 2008.

According to Wang, despite being called the "white dolphin," the newborn calves are grey.

Wang took the video this April. As a researcher in the field of Chinese white dolphins for more than a decade, he has filmed countless videos and pictures of the dolphins.

"There are about 60 to 70 white dolphins in Xiamen bay. It's not rare to see a few heads of white dolphins while walking on the shore. People living at the seaside often see white dolphins from their balconies," Wang said.

In Xiamen bay, the living environment of white dolphins highly overlaps with the range of human activities. Xiamen is the only city in China where people are able to see inshore dolphins on its beaches. In other provinces and regions, such as Guangdong and Guangxi, people can only get to dolphins in the open sea after hours by boat.

Protecting the white dolphins takes decades of persistence and dedication.