Hong Kong: An Oyster

Hong Kong: An Oyster

I

haphazardly picked up the razorsharp knife which lay inside the shucking glove, trying my best to find any opening in the oyster that would give to my force. I kept flipping the poor oyster over in my hand, determined to shuck my first without any guidance. After five minutes of struggling, I eventually dug myself a small hole between the oyster’s valve. Feelings of anticipation flooded through me. I was determined to shuck this oyster. Moments later, a light “bup” sounded within my hands. Disarming the seagrass-covered top shell, I beheld a fresh oyster for the first time.

Within the shell was a coat of creamy white as the oyster’s base layer, similar to the color of a face product. Within this whiteness lay a naked oyster, exposed to sunlight

and human eyes. The oyster almost seemed to be outlined by black ink, with soft, light green flesh in the center. The gills surrounded the rest of the organs, where food and water is filtered. Then came the adductor muscles, the heart, the tentacles, the mantle and the intestines, each performing a specified task to sustain the life of the oyster. In some ways, the oyster reminds me of Hong Kong. The heart is the central government, monitoring the economy and regulating the people; the gills are the forests, wetlands, and marshes within Hong Kong; the narrow mountain roads resemble the intestines of an oyster, always functioning as a pathway for time-rushed citizens to reach their destinations; and last but not least, we, humans, are the colorless blood that pumps through the transparent organs of the oyster,

vital and omnipresent. You will find history in every street, every corner, and every alleyway of Hong Kong. This history serves to enrich the human experience of living in such a flagrantly cosmopolitan city. Gigantic skyscrapers fill blocks at a time with their reflective windows and fancy signage. Modern restaurants attract customers with their signature dishes. Newly constructed malls with namebrand shops populate the heart of the city. With such an advanced design of the city on an island, it begs the question of what else we can accomplish in the future. However, before we venture that far, let us reexamine the footprints we have left on this island. Take a bus into a rural neighborhood in Hong Kong, and you will encounter walls of buildings cracked beyond repair, cockroaches scattering at the sight of humans and loud air conditioners propped outside high windows, slowly dripping gray water onto the streets. Like the separate shells of an oyster, there are two sides to Hong Kong.

Oysters are mainly cultivated in one area, Lau Fau Shan. This small fishing village in the southwest of Hong Kong has provided consistently delicious, fresh oysters to the city’s residence. Lau Fau Shan faces the magnificent skyline of Shenzhen, only separated by the waters of the Deep Bay. It is in this narrow channel that hundreds of floating metal cages are placed to feed the growing population. This method of cultivating oysters in Hong Kong has been practiced for seven hundred years, yet to this day, only thirty families continue to honor the traditional method passed down from generations above. Due

to intense labor, low pay, and luring city job offers, the new generation is slowly disrupting the business, as less and less people are willing to work in this field. This change in mindset of the young is severely disrupting the natural order in Hong Kong, and locals are scrambling to find ways to revive the industry. Particular means to increase incentives include increasing salaries or decreasing labor, which are both temporary solutions to a more ingrained problem.

head on, one of these institutions is the Nature Conservancy. As an intern in the Nature Conservancy, my work brought me places I never even knew existed. TNC’s goal is to maintain the oyster reefs in order to filter water and pollutants. It is their hope that cleaner water will bring back marine life and improve conditions for animals native to Hong Kong Bay like the endangered pink dolphin. During my two months working in the field, I identified and mapped oyster populations in various

sites within Hong Kong. Lau Fau Shan, Pak Nai, Tung Chung, Tai O and Yi O to name a few. Another job of mine, this one unofficial, was to raise awareness of sustainability in Hong Kong, specifically oysters. The industry has to be economically viable, socially acceptable, and environmentally conscious in order for it to thrive. Through word of mouth and social media, I spread the message of this little-known problem in Hong Kong, which affects all of us on a much larger scale.

With my work bringing me into every corner of Hong Kong, I saw firsthand the importance of protecting our natural environment, not just limited to oyster and sea grass beds, but also to our wetlands, forests, and nature reserves. Pak Nai is no exception. During my time in the Nature Conservancy, I visited this site on four separate occasions, each with a different goal in mind. Walking in knee deep mud is certainly not an easy task, however, these steps are necessary to ensure the Hong Kong oysters are well-documented and thoroughly researched.

Part of the reason the industry is declining is because of the 2013 Oyster scare. During this time, the media reported hazardous levels of bacteria and heavy metal in shellfish, causing public concern and abstinence from consuming oyster products. The effects of the 2013 scare can still be seen in Hong Kong’s consumption habits, as many local restaurants refuse to purchase oysters farmed in Hong Kong. Instead they turn their heads and order oysters in bulk from France.

Many governmental programs and NGO’s have addressed this problem

One of the objectives of the project our project was to determine the locations of seagrass beds, oyster beds, horseshoe crabs and find a correlation between the three. In other words, to test if there is a relationship between the three species, as all three seem inseparable at times. The method to determine correlation was to carry a hand-held Garmin device and walk around the patches where oyster and seagrass beds were present as the map automatically downloads itself into the device. For the horseshoe crabs, we took a picture of the crabs and uploaded the picture’s coordinates to a map. With all three elements on a map, we began to see a pattern emerge. Sites almost always start with oysters lower in the tide, after that, the seagrass beds follow, then the horseshoe crabs. The oysters serve as buffer for healthy horseshoe crab habitats, which are composed of soft mud containing a slight layer of water without any obstruction into the sea. Juveniles, carrying a soft shell in the exposed mud, are the main groups that our research focuses on to ensure their habitats are fully understood. Horseshoe crabs have been in the world before humans have, yet we

still don’t know enough about them and their habitats to ensure they will continue to live on in the future. What we do know, however, through testing multiple hypothesizes, is that there is some type of correlation between horseshoe crabs and oysters, and it is only a matter of time before this relationship is confirmed.

But how exactly are these oysters grown and harvested? A portion of the oysters grown in Deep Bay are transported into the Hong Kong Oyster Company’s Depuration Center. A milestone achievement, the image above shows the first depuration center to be opened in Hong Kong. Here, oysters are brought from Deep Bay and will sit

in ultraviolet sterilized seawater for up to four days to remove bacteria from their system. With ten state of the art tanks, and a lab equipped only with the best machinery, oysters that emerge from this rigorous cleansing cycle will not only be safe to eat, they will be delicious. Through controlling key measurements of the water quality such as pH, temperature, oxygen levels and so on, scientists have achieved a new level of purity in their product. Not only do scientists control water quality, they control bacteria as well. Everyday, scientists sample the water and oysters for bacteria, even counting the number of individual bacteria, to ensure safe consumption for all. The walls of dilapidated buildings are being repainted here, the cockroaches that infest these oysters are being exterminated, and the air conditioners are being fixed to safeguard these oysters from another outbreak.

The depuration center is a colossal step in reviving the oyster industry in Hong Kong. Over the past years, the community is slowly gaining farmers’ trust despite the incident in 2013. It is only a matter of time before oysters become commonplace on the dinner table yet again.

Mudskippers fill the murky puddles during the low tide. Cranes venture

Photo by Arthur Yao

into the shallow mudflats in hopes of finding astray fish. Sea crabs bubble under the thick mud. It is a regular day on the job for oyster farmers in Hong Kong as they hop on their rustic boats and whir into the horizon. The tide comes and goes within the flash of an eye and farmers have to be prepared for a sudden retreat or attack in the waves. Out in the horizon, the cages bobble helplessly in the estuary with thousands of oysters within them.

Farmers rely heavily on the oysters for their livelihood, therefore it is crucial for them to preserve the health and biodiversity of the species. Any disease or outbreak would immediately cripple their lives and collapse the industry. Similarly, it is the scientist’s job to keep the oysters thriving, undergoing regular monitoring and checkups. With all these safeguards in place, it is the consumers job to enjoy this delicacy freely.

Walking into a local restaurant in Hong Kong, I sit down and customarily holler my order at the waitress with handfuls of plates stacked onto her hand: “YangZhou Fried Rice!” I take a seat, glancing at the people around me. People of all different types of skin colors, hair styles, and clothing seated in this crammed restaurant tucked into the corner of an alley, known in Hong Kong as the most authentic place to eat oysters. People’s plates piled up with wasted shells as they slurped the delicacy into their empty stomachs. Slurping the history, the architecture, the highways, the people of Hong Kong – all in one bite. But what they don’t know is that they might also be slurping the methane, the carbon dioxide, the runoff, and waste water into their stomachs. I suppose these are part of Hong Kong now as well.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ​Arthur Yao is from Shanghai, China and currently a junior studying at Deerfield Academy. He was a participant in Sustainable Summer’s 2017 Dartmouth program. He is particularly interested in sustainable agriculture and finding solutions to feed the world - to ultimately end world hunger.

Sustainable Summer intern Eana Bacchiocchi interviews 2017 Sustainable Summer participant, Arthur Yao, who has demonstrated environmental leadership within his high school, Deerfield Academy. Arthur speaks about his attempts to implement green modes of transportation on campus, as well as further sustainable projects he hopes to achieve on campus.

Q: What brought you to Sustainable Summer? What were you hoping to gain from the experience? A: Sustainable Summer was introduced to me though my parents friends who highly recommended the program. After initially hearing about this program, I researched it and found out not only was it held on a prestigious campus, the programs mission statement directly

aligns with my interests. I remember thinking to myself: I have to apply to this program. Prior to attending Sustainable Summer, I was most excited about meeting like-minded individuals from all over the country with the same passions of protecting the environment. Additionally, I also wanted to gain the experience of living independently with a roommate on a college campus for two weeks. Programs like these are a two-way relationship - I wanted to take what I learned from sustainable summer and purposefully change the lives of many.

Q: Have there been any other classes or programs that have inspired you or interested you in the realm of sustainability or environmental leadership/entrepreneurship? A: Definitely. In the summer of 2016, I went on a school trip to the Island School in Eleuthera to study how to protect endangered species, as well as how to create a sustainable school environment. Later that summer, I embarked on a two week voyage on a skipjack and sailed across the Chesapeake Bay, in which I learned the importance of our marine systems and methods to protect this precious resource. In addition to my previous summer experiences, my school offers AP Environmental Science, AP Seminar, and Research in Sustainability, which I plan to take by the time I graduate.

Q: Do you know of any other boarding school campuses that have implemented a program similar to GreenBikes? A: As of the moment, I don’t believe there are any boarding schools currently employing bike share services, but I can speak, from talking to students across other schools, that students have at least tried. One of the biggest obstacles that volume ii25

face students is the law, especially in Massachusetts, that if you are below the age of 16 you are required to wear a helmet. This was one of the reasons my idea of starting bike share initiative at my school failed. However, I know that certain college campuses have hired professional bike share services on the campuses. An example would be ZAGSTER operating on Dartmouth College’s campus, or Green Bikes operating on Bates college’s campus. Although the cost of maintaining and acquiring the bikes and bike stands are high, these college campuses pave the way for environmental stewardship.

Q: Did you do a campus survey to get a sense of student interest? A: A survey wasn’t needed, based on every single person I talked to around campus, they supported the Green Bikes program; they sincerely hoped I succeeded since it would make a big difference in travel time for those students. However, after pitching my idea to Student Life, I was shot down because of the rules and regulations of the State of Massachusetts. This was merely a roadblock in my way; I was determined to continue to make our campus more sustainable. My friend and I, Brigid Stoll, started another initiative called Green Scooters. Instead of riding bikes, students would ride scooters around campus. This idea, as a matter of fact, was accepted by the student body due to the recent popularity of scooters around campus. We customized 20 scooters and named them after Deerfield’s headmasters - a technique which hopefully would allow students to respect them. It was an instant success. Students rode scooters to class, to games, and to see their friends. However, there was another problem - a student fell on a pavement one day and was diagnosed

with a concussion. This led the school to retract all the scooters due to liability issues. Another initiative, another setback, but my failure only fueled my success.

Q: In what ways does or does not Deerfield Academy present itself as a sustainable campus? A: Sustainability initiatives and clubs have populated our campus in the past couple years. Whether that is a club discussion or an all-school meeting, students who are passionate about the environment will always have an outlet to express their interests. Not only are these initiatives springing up in our school, many other boarding schools and colleges are taking the same step forward to significantly reduce their carbon footprint. It has become a movement which has swept our institutions. Specifically at Deerfield, there are clubs such the EcoReps, which empowers students to monitor dorm trash disposal and educate younger students on the issue; there is the Sustainable Development club, which focuses on student-led projects and instilling an overarching sense of care for our environment. The school is incredibly responsive and supportive to studentled initiatives and has implement many of our own ideas. For example, the school sorts our trash into compost, landfill, cardboard, plastic, bottles, electronic waste, tissues, and pizza boxes ensuring nothing is disposed incorrectly; the school has also bought local ingredients around western Massachusetts for our dining hall and our community has also ended plastic straws and foam takeout boxes, switching to compostable materials.

Q: What are some other future projects for your Sustainable Development Club on campus?

A: After failing once again, I wanted to take another route - to start an environmental club on campus. I started a club called the “Sustainable Development Club”, named after the United Nations Sustainable Development goals. As this is a relatively new club, some of the projects the school could benefit from is to eliminate plastic waste in our laundry services. As a matter of fact, our clothes usually come in two to three sheets of plastic as a protective layering. Instead, we are proposing to switch to reusable mesh covering. Another initiative we have discussed is to have a green wall - or in other words, a moss wall in our buildings. This would cover one side of the wall with live plants to purifying the air. Lastly, we hope to take Nature walks in the spring - a place where students can enjoy the beauty of Nature and all its benefits.

Q: Looking towards the future, do you hope to pursue environmental or sustainability studies in college? You mentioned two very eco-friendly colleges in regards to their environmental stewardship- how important is that for you when you’re choosing colleges? A: As I am going on college visits to see what it the perfect fit for me, I want to attend college that genuinely cares about our environment. However, I also want to branch out and try out different fields of study when I grow up. Environmental Science is something that is apart of my life now, and even if I venture into the most unexpected fields of study, I will always have this innate care for the wellbeing of the environment since it is such a big part of who I am.