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Should Hong Kong Geopark introduce visitor quota after dinosaur fossil discovery?

Umito October 27, 2024

Increased protection measures, including visitor quotas, are expected to be introduced at the Hong Kong premier site. Discovery of a dinosaur fossilexperts said amid a surge of interest among social media users in visiting Port Island.

The city’s development minister had previously estimated that the island would be closed for further geological investigations for at least a month, citing the upcoming monsoon and experts’ hope that more fossils could be found.

The site is also part of one of two geological regions in Sai Kung that were designated a geopark by UNESCO, the UN heritage body, in 2011.

The Sai Kung Volcanic Rocks Region and the Northeast New Territories Sedimentary Rocks Region were subsequently recognized as a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2015.

Port Island is one of several protected areas in the geopark where visitors are “not encouraged” to land and are instead invited to enjoy it from a distance via boat tours.

“We believe it will take at least a month, if not longer, to collect samples from Port Island,” Development Secretary Bernadette Linn Hon-ho said Saturday.