Unfortunately the recent case of people at Lung Mei destroying sea life is not an isolated one.
At Pui O beach the weekend before last, a group of visitors was seen gathering a large number of hermit crabs, putting them into a bucket and playing with them for a while before dumping the crabs in a pile far from the sea. If they had not been returned to the sea by some children who saw what happened, they would certainly have died.
Many people were also gathering clams to eat, which seems perfectly reasonable. Again, though, certain other groups of visitors were digging up clams, putting them into buckets and then throwing them away when they left the beach, again, much too far from the sea to survive.
I have seen the same behaviour on Cheung Chau. On one occasion, when I confronted a man who had collected live clams in a bottle only to throw them into a bin later, he replied that it was not important as they were only shells.
It is a shame that so many people in Hong Kong display such little regard for animal life and nature, and that the children they bring along with them on these seaside trips will presumably grow up with the same attitude.
