Hong Kong Marine Ecological Association’s (HKMEA) project “Shore up with shells: enhancing marine biodiversity on artificial rip-rap seawalls with a nature-based approach” was successfully granted by Marine Ecology Enhancement Fund (MEEF) in June 2022. Another project “Shells to Hotels: Building micro-habitats with oyster shells for the rehabilitation of marine biodiversity” is supported by the Sea the Future fund of Interflow Foundation since July 2022. The two projects aim at using oyster shells to rehabilitate the biodiversity of rip-rap seawalls and pontoons, and to use this rehabilitation trial to engage and educate the public on conservation and coastal restoration practices in Hong Kong. In 2022, HKMEA has organised 26 educational talks and 26 workshops with partner organisations, primary and secondary schools, with a total of 527 participants joined our activities.

World Ocean Day 2022 Activities

In celebration of the World Ocean Day, HKMEA have visited our community partners and lead a biodiversity survey of the oyster strings under pontoons in Victoria Harbour to introduce marine organisms living on oyster reefs and the oyster rehabilitation programmes of Oyster SOS.

School collaborations

In this academic year, HKEMA has collaborated with Chinese International School and Heep Yunn Primary School. We have organised a series of activities, including educational talks, oyster shell string-fabrication workshops and oyster shell string monitoring, to increase students’ understanding on marine ecological conservation and provide a hands-on experience on ecological rehabilitation.