Coral Bleach Discovery Leads To More Monitoring

The government said on Wednesday that it will launch a long-term monitoring scheme on local coral reef next year to protect them from threats of global warming.

This came after a study commissioned by the authorities, covering 33 sites of coral reef in Hong Kong waters, found coral bleaching in six of them.

Bleaching shows an unhealthy state of the coral that can be caused by rising sea temperatures linked to climate change.

Although the study finds that the coral bleaching in Hong Kong is not too serious – and that it can be caused by a drop in the saltiness of the water – it has urged the government to step up monitoring of major coral hotspots in the face of extreme weather.

A senior marine conservation officer at the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, Chow Wing-kuen, said they will take on the recommendation and roll out a more comprehensive scheme to monitor selected coral sites next year.

Chow told RTHK's Candice Wong that this will give an indication about how local reef react to changes in the environment.