Underwater visual surveys conducted across 55 dive sites in Hong Kong have revealed another 31 reef fish species from 14 families living there. The species include members from Acanthuridae, Chaetodontidae, Diodontidae, Gobiidae, Labridae, Mullidae, Nemipteridae, Pinguipedidae, Pomacanthidae, Pomacentridae, Ptereleotridae, Solenostomidae, Tetraodontidae and Tetrarogidae, with all being found outside marine protected areas, and artificial release being ruled out.
Hong Kong’s waters in the South China Sea vary in salinity, nutrients and temperature, due to the wet season and the Pearl River effluent, but those conditions combine to create a biodiversity hotspot, attracting both tropical and temperate fish species, saltwater, and brackish. There are corals there too, with Hong Kong recording 26% of the total marine species records in China, despite Hong Kong making up only about 0.03% of China’s total marine territory.
In a paper published in the JMBA, Chinese researchers estimate that there ould be some 500 reef fish species present in Hong Kong, but that they are threatened by habitat degradation, water pollution, as well as high fishing pressure in the area. Currently, there is a total of eight designated Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) (seven marine parks and one marine reserve) distributed around Hong Kong waters, occupying around 6117 hectares and ~3.7% of the total territorial waters. This percentage, say the researchers, is far below the goal of having 10% of the coastal and marine areas protected by 2020, as previously agreed by parties of CBD.
Citation
To read the Open Access paper see Chung, A., See, G., Lam, S., Yiu, W., & Shea, S. (2023). Thirty-one new records of reef fish species for Hong Kong waters. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 103, E16. doi:10.1017/S0025315423000036
The 31 new fish species records are as follows:
- Acanthurus xanthopterus
- Chaetodon adiergastos
- Chaetodon Selene
- Heniochus singularius
- Diodon hystrix
- Amblyeleotris wheeleri
- Amblygobius nocturnus
- Cryptocentrus nigrocellatus
- Eviota teresae
- Gnatholepis cauerensis
- Gobiodon axillaris
- Gobiodon prolixus
- Anampses geographicus
- Bodianus dictynna
- Cirrhilabrus cyanopleura
- Halichoeres marginatus
- Halichoeres melanochir
- Thalassoma lutescens
- Upeneus sp.
- Scolopsis ciliata
- Parapercis millepunctata
- Parapercis tetracantha
- Centropyge bicolor
- Plectroglyphidodon leucozonus
- Pomacentrus nagasakiensis
- Pomacentrus tripunctatus
- Ptereleotris heteroptera
- Solenostomus paradoxus
- Arothron mappa
- Canthigaster valentini
- Ablabys taenianotus
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