DIGGING around in sticky mud, in places chest-high, grabbing crabs or looking at grass in the sea may not sound like fun. But Dr Joe Lee Shing-yip of the Zoology Department at the University of Hong Kong spends a lot of time doing it - and enjoying it.
This week he will be out in the sea off Tung Chung, erecting a barrier to stop the fine silt caused by the airport dredging from ruining a bed of sea-grass - rare species which have adapted to marine life.
''It'll be very hard work,'' he said. ''We have to walk for about half-an-hour carrying the equipment on our backs. Then there'll be drilling, and the enclosure is cumbersome. It's not going to be easy.'' The work, to fit a cloth barrier to protect the grass, is part of a $200,000 study of rare grasses and the possible need to relocate them if the silt proves to be too damaging.
Researchers say wetlands may be useful.
Mangroves, for instance, are proving their worth as coastal stabilisers, helping prevent siltation and flooding.
Dr Lee spent two weeks in September digging in the thick Mai Po undergrowth, with about 20 scientists from around the region. They found that the mangroves were home to at least 30 species of crab, some of them rare species not recorded before at Mai Po.
