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2018.NOV.Issue 1
研究自然
Research Nature
Unraveling the Marine Biodiversity of Tolo
An interview on the “Ting Kok +” project
The “Ting Kok +” Project (in full name: Assessing the Marine Biodiversity and Ecology of Tolo Harbour and Channel, with Particular Reference to Coastal Marine Environments of Ting Kok and Shuen Wan Hoi) is a 3-year mega-project of Hong Kong which has just ended this year, Research teams from 6 universities, including HKU, came together to search for the marine biodiversity of the Tolo Channel.
With the synergy of different research teams, the project was able to take a look at the marine biodiversity of 67 sites, including 4 kinds of ecological habitats, namely subtidal reefs and corals, soft shores, rocky shores and mangroves within the Tolo Channel.
Text and Interviewer/ Hecate Fong
Ting Kok + Project HKU research team © Juan Carlos
Tolo - “Hong Kong’s first marine ecological disaster”?
Perhaps one of the unique features of the Tolo area is its close connection with neighboring urban areas. It is indeed amazing that within an hour of transportation, you can find yourself surrounded by the sound of sea waves. With the increasing awareness of the rich biodiversity of Tolo, could you imagine that just a few decades ago, Professor Brian Morton, world-renowned marine biologist and current Emeritus Professor of Marine Ecology in HKU, described Tolo as “Hong Kong’s first marine ecological disaster”?
Back in the Song Dynasty, Tolo was once a royal enclosure for pearl culture. During that time, Tolo remained a rather rural area with extensive mangrove stands growing along the shoreline. In the early 1980s, with the die-down of the pearl culture industry, several marine fish culture zones emerged. It was around that time when urbanization took place in Tolo and the “ecological disaster“ started. The development of the two new towns, namely Shatin and Tai Po, was achieved through a massive reclamation, and the consequences to the natural habitats of Tolo was terrible.
“From the literature review years ago, at least 22% of the natural shoreline and 42% of the mangrove area in Tolo Harbour lost as a result of reclamation works,” the project team recalled. Although the government has actively implemented mitigation measures to improve the water quality of Tolo since then, it seems that there is still more time needed for the marine ecosystem in Tolo to fully recover.
Yet, nature never disappoints us. In the project, a total of 1597 species was recorded, including 124 species of birds. This accounts for more than one-fifth of the marine biodiversity in Hong Kong. “If a still-recovering Tolo already holds such a rich biodiversity, what will it be like for a fully-recovered Tolo?
You could never know enough…
Ecologists strive to discover new species. Every time a new species is discovered or a new record is made, a tiny part of nature’s mystery is revealed.
In 2017, a new species of tree-climbing mangrove crab Haberma tingkok was discovered by the researchers on the project’s mangrove survey team from HKU. They named this little tree-climbing cutie after Ting Kok, the place where it was found. The crab gained popularity as lots of local news had reported its discovery.
The first individual of the crab was found by Steven Wong, a helper in the mangrove team. “I was really excited and surprised!” said Steven, recalling his experiences in finding the crab. “By that time I was only an undergraduate, I didn’t know a lot about the mangrove biodiversity when I was helping the team,” recalled Steven. “I could only identify those common mangrove crabs. When I saw the tree-climbing crab, I knew I couldn’t identify it and I gave it to the team for identification. But I absolutely did not foresee that it could be a new species! I just thought that maybe it’s some other common crabs which I haven’t learnt about. I guess I’m a very lucky helper, ha-ha!” He chuckled. “However, I think this also somehow shows that the marine biodiversity of Hong Kong is insufficiently investigated. Ting Kok has been a hotspot for scientific investigations in the past decade, yet, you can still find a new species sitting on the tree!” He shared.
The tree-climbing mangrove crab - Haberma tingkok © Hecate Fong
While the Haberma tingkok species was basking in the limelight on local news, another two species which was new to science got no attention at all.
One of the new polychaete species - Mesochaetopterus tingkokensis was discovered by the project’s soft shore team from the Hong Kong Baptist University back in 2014 and was also thereafter recorded in the project’s soft shore surveys.
In the year of 2018, another new polychaete species collected from the project was also confirmed. This new species - Marphysa hongkongensa, is also discovered by the Hong Kong Baptist University. The scientific paper of it was published in September.
Maybe it’s better for us to start being more aware of the existence of Hong Kong’s polychaete biodiversity.
Besides, a number of potentially new species are still being investigated, stay tuned!
What the citizens say
Rarely did biodiversity research projects in the past look into social-economic values of ecosystem services. There are steps to conservation, from understanding the situation, to having curiosity and awareness, and finally to taking action. Therefore, understanding the importance of the natural environment to our daily life can provide us with huge motivation to conserve nature.
For fishermen, ecosystem services would mean providing them with a sustainable supply of fish. “The fishermen actually care about the marine environment in Tolo,” Li Cheuk Wing, research assistant of the project shared. “Some fishermen told us that the quantity of the fish that they got was smaller compared to previous decades because of reclamation works. They also raised concerns on the problem of red tide, reflecting that red tides in Hong Kong waters have become more serious and poisonous which killed fish on a large scale.”
“There was some good news. Fishermen also told us that the amount of fish they caught increased slightly in recent years after the trawling ban,” said Li, a research assistant in HKU from the social-economics team. “Interestingly, when we asked them about opinions on the current policies and management measures of fishing, they thought that these measures are too strict. For example, the marine protected areas have reduced their available areas for fishing.”
For visitors, the results are intriguing. “I was surprised. The majority of the visitors that I interviewed went to the Tolo area for recreational activities that do not involve directly utilizing the marine environment, such as biking. Apparently they had little understanding and awareness about the biodiversity of Tolo. What a pity!” sighed Li. “The majority was worried more about marine pollution, especially about the quality of Hong Kong waters, rather than the threats to biodiversity. Perhaps it’s because they primarily worry about natural resources that are directly affecting their daily life, such as their physical health.” She added that the public promotion of ecological conservation in Hong Kong should link more to people’s needs in their daily life, rather than solely talking about biodiversity.
How can policies strive a balance between conservation and the need of different stakeholders in the city? How can we better promote the concept of ecological conservation to the public? These are questions that are kept being asked by ecologists. While hoping the general public to understand and be aware of the nature, we should perhaps listen more to their opinions too.
Future?
“Hong Kong rarely has the chance to do a mega-project to access the marine biodiversity,” said Dr. Juan Carlos, the current project manager from the University of Hong Kong. “This project is a good start, providing insights to us on how to conduct similar mega-projects in the future.” Observations and analysis of temporal and spatial variation is crucial for in-depth understandings about the ecology and biodiversity of a place, “and it takes lots of time and resources. I hope that the government can grant support to more mega-projects to investigate the biodiversity of Hong Kong.”
“I think… The biggest obstacle of intertidal habitat conservation in Hong Kong comes from people’s biased views and misconceptions about intertidal habitats,” said Ryan, a research assistant in HKU. “For example, the general public would perceive mangrove as dirty and muddy places, rather than paying attention to their rich biodiversity.” It seems that changing people’s misconceptions about intertidal habitats remains one of the most urgent issue to tackle in the future promotion of conservation. “It’s time for us to think about ways to showcase the public that we really have a enormously rich marine biodiversity.” Apart from diving into research, it’s time for ecologists in the research institutes to reach to the general public, and share our knowledge of the field.
“Ecological conservation and social development is not supposed to go against each other,” Sallie pointed out. “The whole system of habitats is connected.” She urges the government to treasure the efforts of the project, and attach importance to the findings of it. “Despite our efforts, the government still insists on developing Lung Mei Beach. I hope the government really sees what we have done in this project in the future.” Most importantly, she hopes that people can identify Hong Kong from not only the economic achievements, but also the intrinsic values of the ecosystem that we have. “When we are accessing the biodiversity of an ecosystem, we’re not accessing the economic value of it. The whole concept of biodiversity represents the intrinsic value of the ecosystem.”
“It’s never too late to start.”
Dr. Juan Carlos
I advise the young generation interested in ecology and biodiversity to get out there and explore nature. Hong Kong provides wonderful conditions to explore different habitats and directly see those processes learnt in the classroom or books. But curiosity is a must to learn and enjoy nature.
Sallie
Before coming back to Hong Kong to work on this project, I studied and lived overseas. I felt that my connection with Hong Kong was lacking, as the culture, lifestyles and environments overseas are totally different from that of Hong Kong. Throughout the field surveys, I felt that I really had a physical connection with Hong Kong as I explored the topography and living beings of Tolo. The bondings among me, the physical environment and local people strengthened.This project is very meaningful for me as it provides me the opportunities to connect with Hong Kong.
Within the research team, I treasure a lot the friendship among me and my colleagues. It’s the first time that I ever felt how powerful a good teamwork could be. When everyone’s striving for our best and actively helping each other, the atmosphere of the working place and our productivity was incredible for my own mental state. Even now when I have left the project and working elsewhere, I am still trying to recreate this amazing dynamic of teamwork.
Ryan
I could still remember the overnight beach sein survey. You probably won’t have the chance to catch fish in the midnights when temperature could be lower than 10°C, right? During my undergraduate studies, I have studied theories of fish surveys from the textbook and lectures, but have never tried hands-on surveys, therefore every juvenile fish survey is an unforgettable memory for me. Oh yes, and the Longhorn cowfish, they are so interesting!
One of my biggest reward in this project is that I have met a lot of people who are very passionate in the field of ecology and conservation work. Some of them are even at the frontline of conservation.
Longhorn cowfish Lactoria cornuta © Sallie Lau
References:
Cannicci, Stefano & L. K. Ng, Peter. (2017). A new species of micro-mangrove crab of the genus Haberma Ng & Schubart, 2002 (Crustacea, Brachyura, Sesarmidae) from Hong Kong. ZooKeys. 662. 67-78. 10.3897/zookeys.662.11908.
Wang, Zhi & Zhang, Yanjie & Qiu, Jian-Wen. (2018). A New Species in the Marphysa sanguinea Complex (Annelida, Eunicidae) from Hong Kong. Zoological studies. 57. 10.6620/ZS.2018.57-48.
Zhang, Yanjie & Rouse, Greg & Qiu, Jian-Wen. (2015). A new species of Mesochaetopterus (Annelida, Chaetopteridae) from Hong Kong, with comments on the phylogeny of the family. Zootaxa. 3974. 495-506. 10.11646/zootaxa.3974.4.2.
Lai, L. W. [黎偉聰]. (1994). Property rights analysis of zoning. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b3123424
Brian Morton. (1989). Pollution of the coastal waters of Hong Kong. Marine Pollution Bulletin. Volume 20. Issue 7. 1989. Pages 310-318. ISSN 0025-326X. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/0025-326X(89)90153-7.