But a spokeswoman for the Li Ka- shing controlled company said that, while it is concerned, it is too early to decide the matter since the construction hasn't been completed yet.

"If there is a genuine claim due to the construction, we will seriously consider compensation for the loss of fishing gear," the Hongkong Electric Holdings spokeswoman said.

As for the alleged permanent damage to the fishermen's livelihood, she said the company has already given the government an ex-gratia allowance as a guarantee in case something like this happens.

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According to some senior fishermen, citing a government source, that fund is only composed of HK$240,000.

The Hong Kong Fishery Alliance and Cheung Chau Fishery Tradesmen's Association made their claim Wednesday.

They said that a rock hillock created on the ocean floor to cover a 13-kilometer section of the underwater pipeline running from Shenzhen's Ping Chau to Hongkong Electric's Lamma Island power station is cutting up their trawling nets, and has led to an almost 50 percent decline in fish stock.

The fishermen claim they were never informed that the rocks would reach above the seabed until last October, when they began discovering damage to their gear.

Using sonar and global positioning systems, they found that the rocky bulge covering the pipeline was in parts as tall as three meters above the seabed.

According to the association, when the project was gazetted by the government in 2002, it did not specify that the rocks would be above the seabed.

Bolstering their claim, Clarus Chu, a marine conservation officer for WWF Hong Kong, said he had read the Environmental Impact Assessment submitted by Hongkong Electric in 1998 to the Environmental Protection Department, and that it did not disclose in writing that there would be stony hillocks. "There were just some diagrams indicating [a rise]," Chu said.

He also agreed with their allegation that the South China Sea in the area became less hospitable to marine life temporarily because the construction muddied the ocean and the outcrop effectively blocked clean water flowing in to wash out the mess.

But he disputed the fishermen's claims that fish stock diminished because sewage flowing out south of Hong Kong Island was trapped by the outcrop.

To Kwong-biu, spokesman for the Cheung Chau group, warned that if reasonable compensation is not offered by the utility, fishermen will gather money to remove the rocks.

Hongkong Electric has been laying the 93km pipeline from Shenzhen to Lamma Island 24/7 since March to feed a plant that will begin generating electricity using liquefied natural gas in mid-2006.

The project is part of a larger network spearheaded by CNOOC, the mainland's largest offshore oil producer, to move natural gas along the southern China coast.

The Hongkong Electric spokeswoman said only about 80 percent of the construction has been completed.

Representatives of the fishermen approached Democratic Party leader Lee Wing-tat Wednesday to help seek compensation of HK$500,000 for each registered fishing-boat owner in the territory.