Pageant Reject: Ruby the Dolphin Vows to Keep Head Above Water
Think Miss Hong Kong has to be able to pull off a bikini, a glittering evening gown and an elegant sashay down the red carpet? You may be right. Last week, Miss Hong Kong 2013 organizer TVB turned away Ruby, a Chinese white dolphin, who was nominated by The World Wide Fund for Nature as part of a campaign to protect her species.
It's not every day a dolphin tries to enter a beauty pageant. And though Ruby, a Chinese white dolphin, didn't quite make the cut, her nomination has created some momentum for environmentalists who are working towards deeper issues.
Yesterday, Miss Hong Kong operator TVB rejected Ruby's nomination for competition, which came as no surprise to Samantha Lee, senior conservation officer at WWF. “She’s a dolphin after all—we didn't think TVB would consider her,” she says. “We’ve always just planned to use her entry to Miss Hong Kong as a gimmick, and it’s worked pretty well,” she adds. “People used to think WWF is very serious. Now I'm told the campaign is creative and fun.”
And to that effect, the nomination has been quite successful. The WWF's "Vote Ruby" campaign—a petition that asks the government to help conserve white dolphins by declaring the surrounding waters of the West Lantau and Soko Islands as marine parks—has already garnered 3,398 votes.
The Vote Ruby campaign isn't about taking home the crown of Miss Hong Kong, but is instead a call to address the worsening living conditions of Chinese white dolphins. The western Hong Kong waters that they call home are plagued by all kinds of disruptions: water and noise pollution, dredging, dumping and high-speed ferry boats.
A recent report released by the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society estimates that only 61 Chinese white dolphins remain in local waters—a 60 percent decline from 10 years ago. “I find it absolutely terrifying that the number of dolphins residing in Hong Kong is falling so fast,” Lee says. "Ten years ago, I’d see packs of dolphins every time I visited [the waters]. Now I only meet a handful, maybe two out of five times. What happened to the rest?”
Dolphin conservationists believe the government should set apart dolphin hotspots as marine parks, particularly the waters surrounding West Lantau and Soko Islands where reclamation could disrupt dolphin habitats and, activists say, result in irreversible damage.