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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.” 

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“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.” 

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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.

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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.” 

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“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.     

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“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.”

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“It’s never too late to start.”