Over a decade ago, Wang Xiaoyong set out to conserve the corals in the waters off Shenzhen, southern China.
He co-founded a local group called DiveForLove and organised volunteers to survey reefs, remove litter, and collect and replant corals broken by storms. Protecting corals off the coast of Shenzhen, a highly urbanised city, is an urgent task. In the 1980s, coral covered approximately 70 per cent of nearby Dapeng Bay. It was below 30 per cent by 2000, which mirrors the bay’s current coverage levels.
Coral bleaching, which occurs due to heat stress and oceanic conditions tied to weather systems, is so-called because corals lose their colour as they expel symbiotic algae. Dapeng Bay experienced a particularly severe bleaching event in 2024, when, according to Wang, 60 per cent of local corals turned white. Corals…
