Cooling down the threat
The HKSAR has advanced protective policies to prevent further deterioration of the marine environment. A prohibition on trawling in local waters was ordered in 2012. Five marine parks and one marine reserve have been designated since 1996, to safeguard habitats and marine species.
Marine parks contain about 25 percent more fish species than non-protected areas in Hong Kong, according to last year’s study by Professor Kenneth Leung of HKU. Only indigenous fishermen are permitted to fish in marine parks, except Cape D’aguilar Marine Reserve where all fishing is banned. Creatures in marine parks grow unimpeded. Eventually, the parks will overflow and contribute to the restoration of local fisheries resources, Leung said.
Still, marine protected areas account for only 24.3 km2 — around 1.5 percent of Hong Kong’s total marine area. Scholars argue that these scattered protection zones offer little ecological protection.
Larger, highly mobile marine species like Chinese white dolphins, listed since 2010 on the Red List of Threatened Species (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), might obtain no benefit from the protected areas.
Conservationists and marine scientists demand better mapping of protected areas and expansion of conservation to create a chain of protected areas.
Legislative Council member Ho Chun-yin, of the Agriculture and Fisheries functional constituency, acknowledged the decline in fisheries near our shorelines — moderate, so far, but accelerating.
In 2015, a massive red tide — an excessive multiplication of the algae Karenia mikimotoi — broke out in Tolo Harbour, Tai Po. The bloom consumed much of the oxygen in surrounding waters. More than 36 metric tons of marine life in nearby fish culture zones suffocated.
Professor Ang Put of CUHK suggested the best approach is to work on the root cause, the emission of CO2, by cutting greenhouse gases and relying more on clean, renewable wind and solar energy.
In 2017, Hong Kong set out its Climate Action Plan 2030+, pledging to reduce CO2 emissions by around 70 percent by 2030, compared to 2005 levels.
Much can be achieved by scaling back coal power and increasing use of non-fossil fuel sources. From now until 2030, Hong Kong expects about 3 to 4 percent of its energy needs will be produced by renewable sources, wind and other forms such as solar energy and conversion of waste materials, according to the action plan.
We saw local sea temperatures rising and marine populations dropping. We believed they were linked, but couldn’t wrap our minds around how one led to another.”
Ng Wai-keung,