Marine Lives of Hong Kong

Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Canada)

Marine Lives of Hong Kong
Not known to everyone, Hong Kong has vibrant marine lives under the water.

We have selected some of the various species and hope that it will help you understand Hong Kong's oceanic lives more.

Hong Kong is situated on the northern part of South China Sea. The western waters of Hong Kong are largely influenced by Pearl River outflow during the wet season while the eastern waters are under the oceanic influence of Hainan, Taiwan and the Kuroshio currents. As a result of this hydrographic condition, Hong Kong waters nourish a large numbers of distinct marine lives with different characteristics. These marine organisms include unique marine mammals such as the Chinese white dolphin and finless porpoise, marine vertebrates such as coral reef fishes, and marine invertebrates such as hard and soft corals, nudibranch, starfish, and horseshoe crab.

Now let's take a look at some of the species:

Sea Shell
Sea shells have many different shapes, colours and patterns. Their attractive appearance catches the attention of not only marine scientists, but also many collectors.

Sea snails are characterized by their calcium carbonate shells and muscular foot

Sponge

Sponges are the oldest and the simplest living group of multicellular organisms. They are sedentary filter-feeders, which can filter water equal to 4 times of their volume every minute.

These sponges have calcium carbonate spicules in the tissue for support

Horseshoe crab

Horseshoe crabs are often called 'Living fossils' because they still resemble their ancestors that existed several hundred million years ago. Despite the name, horseshoe crab is not a true crab, but a relative of spiders.

Tachypleus tridentatus

Nudibranch

Nudibranch is a type of sea slug, mostly with their gills on the rear part of their dorsal surface. They are shell-less and therefore have developed many means to defend themselves against predators. This group of animals is very diverse in form and colour. They are called 'butterflies of the ocean'.

Nudibranch

Chinese White Dolphin

Chinese white dolphins are one of the 78 species of cetaceans that can be found around the world. They are more commonly known internationally as the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis), and the name Chinese white dolphins is only used by the local Chinese.

Chinese white dolphins mainly occur in all the western waters of Hong Kong including North, East and South Lantau, Deep Bay and near Tai O. They have a strong preference for the estuarine waters

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