By sheer good fortune, Hong Kong, the world's busiest container port set in a stretch of the most crowded waters, has so far managed to avoid the marine catastrophes which have happened on other shores.
There have been no massive oil slicks, no major collisions. None of the accidents which make international headlines, and turn entire coastlines into disaster areas.
But it takes a relatively small incident, like the sinking of the Guan Hang off Tuen Mun this week, to remind us of how vulnerable Hong Kong is to a crisis on the sea.
In 1996, 450,000 craft passed through these waters, patrolled by the 20 vessels of the Marine Department.
Most of the department's energies are concentrated on checking ocean-going traffic, which last year amounted to 219,221 ships.
But it is the small boats that ply back and forth between the mainland and the SAR which regularly overload.
Taking on cargo in the flat waters of the Pearl River Delta they seem safe enough, until they arrive in the crowded seaways of Hong Kong, where the surface is choppy with the wash of vast container ships and hundreds of other craft.