‘Father of ocean conservation’ Brian Morton inspired many in Hong Kong to protect marine environment, animal habitats
- For more than 20 years, British expert led the push for marine parks, reserves in Hong Kong
- Former students, colleagues planning memorial for tireless conservationist who died, aged 78
Students meeting marine ecologist Brian Morton for the first time in class at the University of Hong Kong were often surprised to see their professor dressed casually in shorts and flip-flops.
He was informal, approachable and did not like being called “professor”. But Morton, who died in Britain in March aged 78, was one of Hong Kong’s most important conservationists and inspired dozens of scientists to work on protecting the city’s marine ecosystem.
“Calling Brian the ‘father of ocean conservation in Hong Kong’ is absolutely the most fitting way to describe him,” said Dr Leung Siu-fai, director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) and a former student.
Morton spent more than three decades teaching ecology and biodiversity at HKU before he retired in 2003. He led the push for marine parks and reserves, and founded the Mai Po nature reserve in Yuen Long, HKU’s Swire Institute of Marine Sciences in Cape D’Aguillar and WWF-Hong Kong’s Hoi Ha Marine Life Centre.
“When he first came to Hong Kong, there were few records of marine organisms and the ecosystem here. He was one of the first to really build up this field of research and start teaching it in the city,” said Leung.
In the decades after Morton arrived in the 1970s, Hong Kong saw rapid development, including extensive reclamation that affected the habitats of marine animals. Pollution became a problem too, with plastic waste clogging waterways and beaches.