Lantau road poses threat to dolphins

Wallis Wang

The development of a road on Lantau will threaten the habitat of marine mammals, including the Chinese white dolphin, environmental groups said yesterday.

At a press conference held by Green Sense and the Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society, green activists warned that reclamation works near the Brothers Marine Park in northern Lantau waters would result in the extermination of the remaining Chinese white dolphins in Hong Kong.

Lau Ka-yeung, project director of Green Sense, said the 12-kilometer-long new Lantau Road P1 is made up of two parts - a 2-kilometer section connecting Tung Chung and Tai Ho and a 9-kilometer section connecting Tai Ho and Sunny Bay.

Lau said he and his colleagues have recently found that the construction of the section from Tai Ho to Sunny Bay involves 15 hectares of reclamation and is located just 150 meters away from the marine park.

Lau said that he was worried the reclamation would further destroy marine ecology in the area.

"Before building the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the government said the dolphins would come back to the area after the construction. The Airport Authority promised the same when building the third runway," Lau said.

"However, we did not see the dolphins return. Instead, the number of cetacean strandings is on the rise."

Lau described the large number of construction works in the vicinity - including the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the Tuen Mun-Chek Lap Kok Link and the airport's third runway as "marathon relays of reclamation."

He believed the nonstop reclamation works would make it more difficult for dolphins to come back to Lantau waters.

Lau also questioned whether it is necessary to build a new road through reclamation, as the new Lantau Road P1 parallels the existing north Lantau highway, the traffic of which has yet to reach full capacity.

Viena Mak Hei-man, spokeswoman for the dolphin conservation society, said the number of Chinese white dolphins in Hong Kong waters has declined sharply over the recent decade.

Mak said the number has declined from 188 in 2003 to 32 in 2018, according to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department's marine mammals monitoring reports.

Although the reclamation works caused the Chinese white dolphin population in Hong Kong to fall to a new low, Mak said a 24-hour underwater acoustic research study has shown that the dolphins still appeared in the area.

From the second half of 2017 to 2019, Chinese white dolphins were seen foraging near the Brothers Islands for at least 36 days, Mak said.

"The Chinese white dolphins have not yet abandoned north Lantau areas," Mak said.

But she warned that if reclamation works continue, the dolphins appearing in Hong Kong waters could be exterminated.

Earlier on Monday, a new-born Chinese white dolphin was found dead in Tai O on the western side of Lantau. The young female dolphin was 105 centimeters long and its body had decomposed.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com