By Tamora Vidaillet

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Rare pink dolphins still grace Hong Kong's murky waters, but toxic industrial waste from China, over-fishing and massive infrastructure development appear to be stacking the odds against their survival.

Experts say up to 1,000 pink colored dolphins, known as Chinese White Dolphins, may survive the environmental ravages brought on by thriving trade and an explosive economic boom in southern China.

The unusual dolphin was chosen as a mascot for Hong Kong to celebrate the return of the former British colony to China in 1997.

Now the days of the endangered Pearl River Delta dolphin population seem numbered, with environmentalists arguing too little is being done to ensure their survival.

``Nearly every single calf that is born in the Pearl river delta dies from pollution so we are in effect losing a whole generation,'' local dolphin expert Lindsay Porter told Reuters.

``Unless concrete action is taken, we'll probably see a dramatic crash in figures when surviving calves reach sexual maturity in around 10 years,'' said Porter, who works at the Swire Institute of Marine Science.

Porter believes as few as 180 pink dolphins survive in the Pearl River Delta area.

Chinese White Dolphins are from the sousa chinensis species of cetaceans, which can be found in South Africa, Australia and up the Chinese Coast to the Yangtze River.

What makes Asia's dwindling population, which lives largely in the Pearl River Delta spanning Hong Kong and southern China, special is that calves are gray and turn white or pink when adult.

Potent Killers

The clear, quiet waters Hong Kong's dolphins once enjoyed have become a dumping ground for some 190,000 cubic meters of screened but untreated raw sewage as well as industrial waste from southern China, according to Dolphinwatch, a commercial tour operator which collaborates with wildlife protection groups.

The biggest threat, experts say, is the debilitating impact of industrial effluents used to cool manufacturing equipment being flushed out of southern China's economic zones.

Organochlorines, including the pesticide DDT which is still used in China, have been found in dolphin tissue samples at alarmingly high concentrations and are destroying the mammals' immune systems and killing off calves.

The dolphins also face other threats, including heavy boat traffic even within the confines of their 12 square kilometer marine park and the increasing depletion of nearby fish stocks because of over fishing.

A number of dolphins bare the scars of run-ins with high-speed boat traffic and from the fishing nets of the territory's scarcely regulated fishing fleet.

Land reclamation work at a planned Walt Disney theme park site on Lantau island has also reduced food stocks, killing millions of fish, according to lawmaker Wong Yung-kan who represents the fishing trade.

Half-Baked

Environmental awareness has improved in Hong Kong but the public at large remains apathetic, allowing the government to get away with half-baked efforts to protect the Pearl River Delta dolphins, environmentalists complain.

Though Hong Kong has enacted strong legislation to protect natural habitats from development and to conserve wildlife, enforcement remains a burning issue.

Dolphinwatch guides are quick to point out that a Hong Kong marine park, originally called a ``Dolphin Sanctuary,'' has lax restrictions on boating and fishing activities and serves as a platform for Hong Kong's Aircraft Fuel Receiving Facility for the recently built airport in Lantau island.

``Huge oil tankers dock within the marine park to offload aircraft fuel. This poses an environmental threat to the dolphins,'' said volunteer Dolphinwatch guide Vivian Kwok.

If Hong Kong's dolphins are to survive, pressure needs to be mounted on Chinese authorities to clean up the environment and control the release of effluent into the sea, said Porter.

``There is a lot of monitoring done by a cross-border liaison group but little is actually done. There's no reason why you cannot have a clean environment and a good economy.''

Hong Kong should be able to influence what goes on in southern China because so many Hong Kong companies have invested in the mainland and use China as their manufacturing base.

``It is a total cop out to say this is China's problem and not Hong Kong's,'' she said.

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