In Hong Kong, the SAR government has approved a proposal to build a new runway at Hong Kong International Airport, one of the world’s busiest. But with the airport originally built on mostly re-claimed land, concerns are growing over the impact the expansion could have on the local environment.

Hong Kong’s international airport - It can handle one arrival or departure every 53 seconds, but if the airport has its way, it’ll speed up that pace to one about every 30, thanks to 18 billion dollars third runway. The challenge: Can that be done without hurting the environment?

And Hong Kong’s airport has big growth plans on the board through 2030. But before ground can be broken for a new runway, ground first needs to exist. And this near-threatened species, commonly known as the Chinese pink dolphin, would be threatened even more.

Tak Ching Ho, tour coordinator of Hong Kong Dolphin Watch, said, "We don’t want to have the runway because once the land is being taken over by humans, dolphins will not be able to use that area any more."

Tak Ching Ho is a tour coordinator at Hong Kong Dolphin Watch. Over the past decade, she’s taken thousands of people to see the dolphins. Tak Ching Ho said, "It will lie right in the middle of this straight area, so that means the dolphins will no longer be able to use this area to travel."

Ho adds, only about 100 resident pink dolphins are left in local waters, thanks to water pollution and boat propellers.

Tak Ching Ho said, "I think that seems to be a dead dolphin." Ho has spotted this bloated carcass, the first this year. Tak Ching Ho said, "I’m feeling so sad about it. Yeah. I don’t want to sit, really. I wish that they are always happy, and"

Ho’s tears are a testament to her fear: the pink dolphin’s extinction. Other environmental challenges include increased water pollution, air traffic for more passengers and car traffic, and of course, more noise pollution from more planes. These all dog HongKong’s third runway plans.

And if all the economic and environmental issues can be bridged, the first plans to use the third runway will take to the skies by 2023.

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