When I was a kid growing up in Hong Kong I was fascinated with marine life and naturally went looking for it everywhere I could in Hong Kong. I went snorkeling, beach coming, volunteered as a dolphin-spotter and scoured bookshops and libraries for any information on HK’s marine life. The local water pollution around HK at the time was terrible and I decided that one way to help would be to educate anyone interested in marine life in HK so that people would treasure it more and look after it more carefully. So in 1994 I started a web page called “the Hong Kong Marine Life Page” page to do just that. The page – all hand written HTML – has long since dissapeared, of course.
I actually went on to become a marine biologist and wrote my PhD thesis on microscopic Antarctic deep-sea creatures and then worked in the Natural History Museum in London for a couple of years. But as great as marine biology is, it is unfortunately hard to earn a living in that line of work. So in the end I had to take a normal job (which is still fun), but I still have a passion for marine biology and oceanography and I am still concerned about the impact we as human beings have on the ocean ecosystem.
Being back in Hong Kong though, I have noticed important changes – some for the better, some for the worse. So I have decided to offer my knowledge, my passion for HK marine life and an inexplicable thirst for finding and compiling information on Hong Kong’s marine life, to restart the HK marine life page as a blog. That – by the way – also is all I have time for these days!
So this blog is going to try to capture some thoughts, answer some questions and give some interesting facts and figures on all things do to with the wonderful world under the sea in Hong Kong.
I hope you enjoy this blog and that it teaches you something new or interesting. Feel free to request specific posts or ask any questions, I will be happy to help.
Hello, we saw some strange things on the beach of Pui O on jan. 1st 2014 and we were not able to identify what it was. I shot some pictures and would like to send them to you so you can maybe tell us what it was….algae or micro organisms like plancton…. Hope you can tell…! Let me know to which email I can send you the pics!
Caroline
Thanks for your request. I have sent you an email which you can respond too. If for any reason you don’t get it, please leave another comment on this thread.
Looking forward to those pictures, I am intrigued!
After falling in love with scuba diving and ocean, I feel like I choose wrong study major, nowadays I wish I took marine biology back then. Glad to find your blog with interesting information on marine life. Thank you for keeping us update on this matter.
Your welcome! Glad you enjoy it.
Hi, would you have some recommendation about where we could see this amazing glowing plankton? Is there any special time un the year or location where it can be seen? thx!
The season is definitely summer, and the place to see it would be eastern HK. Tai Long Wan is good, Tung Ping Chau would be good too, but pretty remote. Best time is after a long stretch of sunny calm days. Watch the breaking waves at night. But plankton predictions are pretty unreliable so you need plenty of luck, too. Good luck!
thanks for the quick reply and your great blog:) I will definitely try it as soon as we get a sunny week end !
Hi there,
This is TrailWatch, a local NGO aims at promoting conservation and appreciation of Hong Kong’s countryside. We would like to ask for your permission to share some of your articles on our website. Would you mind send us an email? I would like to tell you more about us. Thank you very much!
hi i am doing a project about chinese white dolphin, it will be my pleasure if i can get some opinion from you:) please contact me: vivian1996222@yahoo.com.hk