​Dolphin Cruise + Kayaking Excursion

Environment   Nov 7, 2015 by My Tran Pham

“There’s one issue that will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other, and that is the urgent and growing threat of a changing climate.”

— U.S. President Barack Obama, UN Climate Change Summit, September 23, 2014

On the 20^th of October our class travelled to Port Adelaide and went on the Dolphin Cruise. On this cruise many factors have affected the Port Adelaide Estuary, including channels for shipping that has replaced the large areas of vegetation such as mangroves and seagrass have been removed. Even though the weather wasn’t the greatest and the sun was not visibly bright that day, this did not stop us girls to observe how there was a stark contrast between the environment and surrounding facilities. This is severely pollution the water and affecting the wildlife. Specifically this will also start to affect our health sooner or later, for example, it was explained that the temperature of the water were increasingly high and that this was due to the chemicals being dumped into the Port Adelaide River. Therefore this area remains forbidden to swim as it is dangerous, what happens to the wildlife specifically the animals that live and breathe these waters? Specifically the dolphins were looked at and that they are being heavily impacted by mankind. Dolphins eat and swim in these waters unaware that they are killing themselves slowly. From poisoning from the chemicals to eating the heavily chemical covered fishes this is not their fault as well as swimming in high temperature waters.

We went back to Port Adelaide a second time on the 30^th of October to go kayaking. Here we were able to witness dolphins swimming leisurely and see the hidden mangroves. Though it was hot, and we were all red from the sun it was a pleasurably experience that allowed us to learn about how much mankind has changed our environment. Dr Mike Bossley, a marine biologist explained to us that we have to take action if we want to see better changes in our future. Though we may not ever get to see the changes we make, and think of them as minor things Dr Bossley explained that future generations would be grateful. Potentially, this does impact us, but it impacts the future more. We obviously all care, but may find that it is difficult to start without any assistance. Overall, this experience was to open our eyes to the ‘bigger picture’. The Earth is slowly being affected due to mankind, now we have to start doing something, which will impact future generations and us. 

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