Drownings at Shek O beach go unrecorded

The morning after Mid-Autumn Festival last year, Shek O resident Mark Pollard and his family went outside to check what state the celebrations had left the beach in. But they found a mess of a much worse kind.

"There were some kids playing in the waters in front of lifeguard tower three," he recalls. Then Pollard, an architect, noticed a youngster dashing up the beach to grab a life buoy. Within minutes other people were stripping off and running into the sea.

It was clear they were in trouble. Pollard, the third man into the water, fished three struggling children out of the waves. "After we got them on the beach, they told us two more were missing."

The two missing teenagers drowned. As tragic as their losses were, drowning deaths and rescues are far more frequent in Shek O waters than most people realise. If you look at the Leisure and Cultural Services Department statistics, just one person drowned in 2011 at the 41 gazetted swimming beaches it runs, and two in 2012. Of last year's deaths, one was at Shek O.

But a number of residents and lifeguards at Shek O believe there were nine drowning deaths off the beach in 2011, and seven in 2012, says Matthew Glencross, an educator and surfer who has lived in the village for 13 years.

The LCSD doesn't dispute the estimate. The department only records drowning deaths that occur during the hours when lifeguards are on duty - between 8am and 7pm from June to August, and between 9am and 6pm in April, May, September and October. Drowning deaths outside those times and during winter months are unreported. Hence, the discrepancy in statistics.

Shek O is one of Hong Kong's most popular swimming beaches. As lifestyles change and interest grows in water sports - such as surfing and boogie boarding - more people are visiting the beach than ever before. The LCSD estimates that one million people visited Shek O beach annually in the past two years.