FEATURES
FEATURES
Three more
no-anchoring areas
to protect coral reefs
Did you know that there are more species of hard coral in Hong
Kong waters than in the Caribbean? Most of them are scattered
in the eastern and north-eastern waters of Hong Kong.
Corals are a protected species here, but face a lot of threats.
One threat is anchor damage caused by boaters unaware of
their presence. Anchoring on the coral reef will simply rip the
reef apart.
Each year an average of more than 10% of preventable coral
damage is from boat anchors.
There are already three coral areas in Hong Kong designated
with yellow triangular buoys telling boaters to stay away from
the coral area. Two are in Sai Kung. These have already been
installed for more than 10 years and the anchor damage
measured in these areas now is negligible.
In late April, over the course of three days I helped the
Oceanway Corporation with the installation process of twelve
marker buoys in another three locations in Sai Kung waters.
The sites were chosen after an extensive five-year investigation
and two-year survey was carried out to determine areas that would
50 HEBE JEBES • SEP/OCT 2015
四月下旬，我連續三天跟Oceanway Corporation到西貢海
域的另外三個指定地點放置12個浮標記號。
為了挑選這些能從無錨浮標區域得益最多的地點，進行了五年
的調查和兩年的研究。這項漁護署計劃行之已久，當中涉及詳
盡的科學、物流、法律及維修等各方面的問題，並清晰記錄在
浮標上。
Words Oliver Petterson Stubbs, 16
benefit the most from no-anchor marker buoys. This AFCD project
has been ongoing for quite some time with the detailed science,
logistics, legal issues and maintenance considerations clearly
supporting ma ɭ