Pioneering Hong Kong scheme to follow the lives of 2 species of horseshoe crabs launched
- Four horseshoe crabs – two tri-spine and two mangrove – tagged and released to help Ocean Park Conservation Foundation understand their life cycles
- Experts say city waters ‘crucial habitat’ for the creatures, which face destruction of habitat and risks from marine debris such as old nets
Hong Kong’s Ocean Park has launched the first-ever scheme to track two species of horseshoe crabs in the city’s waters in a bid to help the government with development and conservation work.
The theme park’s conservation foundation on Wednesday released four crabs in the waters off the city’s airport after they were tagged with tracking devices so their movements could be monitored.
“Hong Kong is a crucial habitat for horseshoe crabs, but they have faced different challenges,” foundation director Howard Chuk Hau-chung said.
“Young horseshoe crabs’ habitat – mudflats – has been destroyed.
“Adult crabs are often found to have been entangled in marine debris, such as abandoned nets, leading to their deaths.”
The foundation said it had also installed an underwater acoustic telemetry system – four receivers with a total area of 3 sq km (1.15 square miles) – to monitor the crabs’ activities, such as their locations and ranges, as well as environmental information, including water temperature and salinity.