Come on in . . . but keep your head out of the water
'We keep our mouths closed and our heads above water of course,' said Chan Luk Mui-yung, 52, as she prepared to dive into the heavily polluted Sulphur Channel near Kennedy Town.
She is part of a group of hardy swimmers who every morning risk poisoning and being hit by high-speed ferries in the narrow strip of sea between Mount Davis and Green Island.
E.coli readings in the water in which they swim have doubled over the past year, from 2,200 bacteria per 100ml to 4,900 - more than 25 times higher than the recommended safe level for swimming.
The housewife said neither she nor any of her fellow swimmers have fallen ill yet.
'Most of us have been swimming here every morning for more than 20 years and we are too stubborn to move out, even though we know about the dangers of toxic water.'
She said she would like the government to clean the water, but fears it would not be enthusiastic about such a project because it already has 'too many things on its plate'.
Kwok Fat-wu, a 64-year-old taxi driver who's been swimming off Kennedy Town for more than 20 years, said the pollution would not put him off his morning swims.
'We've been swimming here for years, and we love it so much that we established a community to provide showering facilities for all the avid swimmers. We even built a bridge leading to the water to make it more convenient,' he said.
'We won't stop just because there are warnings about the toxic sea water. But the government really ought to do something to improve the water here if the threat of the toxins is really so grave.'
A 72-year-old swimmer surnamed Yu said he avoided swimming in the channel only when there was heavy debris or oil in the water. But he said this occurred less often in recent years.
'When the waters are good, you can gaze at the bottom of the sea along the shoreline, and the water glimmers like crystal beneath the early sunlight,' he said.
'It's really beautiful and peaceful. Maybe there are toxins in the sea that we can't see but we're not going to stop because of an invisible threat.'