Rare pink dolphins are returning to the waters between Hong Kong and Macau after the COVID-19 pandemic forced ferry services to stop in the location.

According to a report in AFP, the pink dolphins’ population had declined by 70 to 80 per cent in the past 15 years and the current sightings amid the pandemic has been encouraging.

The dolphins are back!

“We’re seeing much larger group sizes as well as much more socialising, mating behaviour, which we hadn’t really been seeing for the last five years or so,” said a Hong Kong-based marine scientist Lindsay Porter. Porter added that the population of the pink dolphins has increased by roughly a third since March.

Prior to this, WWF reported that only an estimated 2,000 of the rare mammals are left in the Pearl River Delta.