Last chance to see rare pink dolphins before they disappear

Have you actually lived until you’ve seen a rare pink dolphin?

Seeing a dolphin, any dolphin, is an incredibly special experience. These wise mammals have inhabited the planet much longer than human beings, and in that time they have surely learned some tricks we can’t even fathom.

Due to destructive human behaviours, one rare type of dolphin, the Indo-Pacific Humpback dolphin, also known as the pink dolphin or the white dolphin, could soon disappear from the planet altogether. There are only about 2,000 of these cephalopods left in Southern China and the Western Pacific Ocean.

The species has been in peril for some time and conservationists continue to warn that development along Hong Kong’s increasingly busy harbour, including a giant bridge connecting Hong Kong with mainland China and Macao, and airport improvements, will destroy the remainder of the population.

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Figures from the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society report just around 61 pink dolphins left in the Hong Kong area - an incredibly steep decline since 2003.

Just ten years ago it was common to spot these beauties in the wild on a regular basis. Now they are few and far between. Photo: Hong Kong Dolphin Watch

So how can you see one before they disappear? Very carefully and with intention. Hong Kong DolphinWatch takes visitors out into the harbour by boat on a mission to educate about conservation. They look, but they don’t touch and most of the fees go back towards conservation efforts.

Scheduled tours run every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

This article originally appeared on Yahoo Travel.