A campaign to save the endangered green turtle will target remote island communities.
Hakka speaking researchers will educate villagers in the outlying islands that eating turtle eggs is illegal - and threatens survival of the species.
The Hong Kong Marine Conservation Society launched the education and research project after receiving almost $200,000 from the Government's Environment and Conservation Fund.
Green turtles return to their birthplace to lay their eggs, but not until they reach the age of 50. Disturbance or development of the beach means the female will return to the sea without laying.
Scientific projects officer Frazer McGilvray said the fund had barred them from saying which communities were being targeted for fear of encouraging people to visit and harvest the eggs.
'The animals are so rare they don't want to see the few animals that there are disappear.