Every year, HSBC Bank offers an Employee Environmental Fellowship to 500 employees from around the world, in the countries where it operates. Employees chosen for the fellowship, a $50 million programme organised by Earthwatch, are involved in scientific research all over the world. Through this Fellowship, HSBC is contributing towards conservation projects that otherwise would not run.
Being an outdoor person, and a great believer in environmental literacy, I always dreamed of joining a research expedition outside Malta. An opportunity came up when HSBC Group encouraged its worldwide staff members to start “investing in nature” by taking up a commitment to conserve the diversity and integrity of life on planet earth.
HSBC, in conjunction with Earthwatch Institute, provided a range of over 140 research expeditions around the globe, focusing on the protection of the world’s rich biological and cultural heritage. This is where I felt that I had to get out there and make a difference in the world!
After my third attempt I was selected to embark on an exciting project with the Employee Environmental Fellowship Programme for 2006. This involved doing research and conservation of dolphins in southeastern Brazil during July. My experience lasted 12 days.
I worked in a team of eight, including me – three other HSBC employees from Japan, the UK and the USA, a volunteer from Malta who is an engineer by profession, a student, a researcher and a teacher from the USA. The team was well looked after by Dr Marcos Santos, who is a scientist at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and two young assistants who have undertaken research into the behaviour of dolphins.
The research took place in one of the last remaining Atlantic forests – a place filled with dolphins, colourful birds, caymans and mangroves. The project was located in Cananéia Estuary in São Paulo State. During the expedition we had to monitor the interaction of dolphins with unregulated tourism, fishing operations and boats. We also had to monitor mortality caused by diseases.
In this wonderful and unforgettable place, we woke up with birdsong and, on a daily basis, saw some of the rarest dolphins in the world. According to Dr Santos, Cananéia Estuary is home to perhaps the largest resident population of marine tucuxi dolphins, one of the least-studied cetaceans in the world.
Volunteers worked long days on the water in a small boat or carrying out land surveys on beaches, with everyone rotating shifts for land and boat-based observations. These investigations included taking photographs for individual identification, recording dolphin – boat and dolphin – tourist interactions and collecting valuable data on sightings along two beautiful sandy beaches.
Volunteers also helped with laboratory work, such as entering data on the computer and organising slides and photographs.
The experience brought all the participants in touch with nature and it was a good opportunity to promote conservation research and awareness of these vulnerable tucuxi dolphins.