Our Fellowship Chairman today was PP Bernie and our Sergeant-at-Arms was PP Peter. Our Sergeant-at-Arms managed to collect $600 between the raffle and fines.

Acting President Tobias announced that the 47th District Assembly will be held on 28th April at Hong Kong Jockey Club Shatin Club House. Our Club will have Horse Racing on next Wednesday (18th April) and the regular dinner meeting on 19th April will be cancelled for this fellowship event.

Today, we had Mr. Paul Hodgson to talk about “The Mooring Buoy Project”. Hong Kong has more types of coral in its waters than the Caribbean – 87 at present, with more to be discovered. The coral in HK is extremely interesting scientifically. Because of its geographical location and the variable climate, HK coral has developed resistance to naturally-occurring changes in water temperature, salinity and turbidity which would kill coral in many other areas. As global warming takes a hold, the coral in HK waters may well become significantly more important, as coral in other areas, such as the Great Barrier Reef, die as a result of a rise in water temperature. The areas of coral provide an environment to countless types of other sea creatures. As well as a resource for scientific research, the corals of HK are an invaluable resource for tourism, both internal and external – already about 15 commercial dive boats take recreational divers to see the coral areas.

The coral in HK is under threat from several areas: Pollution, Global warming, Trawling, Fishing and Anchor damage. Anchor damage affects up to 15% of some coral areas and is caused by commercial diving boats, which need to position themselves over where the divers are operating; pleasure vessels, which may or may not know that they are mooring in a coral area; and also scientific vessels and fishing vessels – legal and illegal.

Corals grow very slowly and some of the corals being damaged, sometimes irreparably, are hundreds of years old. The solution proposed for the elimination of anchor damage to corals in HK waters is the positioning of 38 mooring buoys over all of the significant coral areas. The buoys will provide an environmentally-friendly way for boats to anchor in coral areas and will have the further function of marking the areas as being home to sensitive coral communities. The buoys are anchored using helix anchors, which have a small footprint on the sea bed, are long-lasting and can be positioned extremely accurately. The use of, cheaper, concrete blocks as anchor points is not suitable as they have a large footprint, are difficult to position precisely and tend to move if large boats are moored to them, which will cause damage to the corals. Last year, 4 such buoys were positioned in Hoi Ha Wan and anchor damage has been all but eliminated. The sites for the anchors have been drawn up in conjunction with the AFCD and permission has been granted by the Marine Department for the positioning of buoys in areas outside the Marine Parks and Reserves, which are controlled by AFCD. The cost of each buoy is HK$18,000, which includes a 5-year maintenance contract. After 5 years, the plastic buoys and mooring ropes will need replacing, at a cost of a few hundred dollars – the anchors are the expensive parts and will last almost indefinitely. The anchors will be provided and installed by Oceanway Corporation at cost price. As clubs sign up to participate in the project, they will be able to choose the spot for their buoy from the map on the Rotary District website.