Tag Archives: China

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Red tides sighted

     Three red tides have been sighted over the past week, an inter-departmental red tide working group reported today (March 5).
 
     A mariculturist spotted the first red tide on February 26 at Cheung Sha Wan Fish Culture Zone. On February 28, Marine Police officers spotted the second red tide in Sha Tin Hoi. On March 1, staff of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) spotted the third red tide at Inner Port Shelter, including Tai Tau Chau Fish Culture Zone.
 
     Apart from the third red tide, which still persists, the other two red tides have dissipated. No fish deaths associated with the three red tides have been reported as of today.
 
     A spokesman for the working group said, “The first and second red tides were formed by Noctiluca scintillans, while the third red tide was formed by Gonyaulax polygramma. Both algae are commonly found in Hong Kong waters and are non-toxic.”
 
     The AFCD urged mariculturists at Cheung Sha Wan, Yim Tin Tsai, Yim Tin Tsai (East), Yung Shue Au, Lo Fu Wat, Ma Nam Wat, Kau Sai, Kai Lung Wan, Tai Tau Chau and Leung Shuen Wan fish culture zones to monitor the situation closely and increase aeration where necessary.
 
     Red tide is a natural phenomenon. The AFCD’s proactive phytoplankton monitoring programme will continue to monitor red tide occurrences to minimise the impact on the mariculture industry and the public.
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East Asia

Judiciary responds to enquiries on a case’s hearing arrangements

The following is issued on behalf of the Judiciary:
 
     Regarding enquiries on the arrangements for the hearing of a case involving 47 defendants at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts, the Judiciary issued the following response:
      
     The courts must adjudicate cases in accordance with the law and court procedures. To ensure efficient administration of justice, the courts have always sought to complete the hearing of each case as soon as practicable.

     Regarding the case concerned, all 47 defendants must be heard before the same magistrate according to court procedures as they were charged with the same offence under the same case. Besides, the case was first brought to the court for mention hearing on March 1. The many defendants involved in the case were all charged on the day before and arranged to appear in court the following day. Given the very short time available, the court had to urgently make the best use of the limited court facilities to put in place arrangements for the hearing of the case. These included those relating to operational arrangements for the hearing, broadcasting, allocation of seats for the public and media, crowd control, security, etc. The hearing lasted for four consecutive days, spanning more than 40 hours. In addition to handling the hearing process, the court at the same time had to deal with admission queuing, court security and anti-epidemic arrangements every day, involving hundreds of court users both inside and outside the court building from time to time. In the face of such unprecedented and huge challenges, there were inevitable shortcomings in some of the implementation details.
      
     The Judiciary has taken note of the views from various sectors of the community on the hearing and other arrangements for the case. The Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal, Mr Andrew Cheung Kui-nung, has instructed that subject to the safeguarding of the due administration of justice, the Judiciary should immediately review the overall arrangements of handling cases involving a large number of litigants and observers at all levels of courts, with a view to adopting improvement measures in a timely manner in respect of all relevant areas, including scheduling of hearings, allocation of seats for observers and broadcasting arrangements. read more

East Asia