Having survived unscathed what could have been a political disaster - the occupation in July by the Chinese red army - Hong Kong has been hit by a series of natural disasters of biblical proportions.
First came the deluge, the heaviest rains in a century, then the deadly fowl pestilence which caused the slaughter of millions of chickens. Now a red tide of algae is devastating the fish in the seas around the former British colony.
The spread of the algae is the "worst natural disaster" in living memory for Hong Kong, one of the biggest fish-eating cities in the world, according to the assistant director for Agriculture and Fisheries, Mr Joseph Sham Chunhung.
Hong Kong's director of health, Ms Margaret Chan, advised the public yesterday to avoid eating sea fish and appealed for help from international experts.
The algae bloom began in mid-March and has killed 1,500 tonnes of fish stocks, the equivalent of half the entire amount produced in Hong Kong waters last year. The microscopic organisms multiply rapidly and colour the sea yellow or reddish brown. The fish suffocate and die after the algae enters their gills.
The government has estimated breeders' losses at more than £7 million, but fishermen claim the figure is three times that.
Some Hong Kong fish farmers are engaged in frantic battles to save their stocks. In a quiet bay called Ma Wan off Lantau Island, a war against the red invaders is being fought by 80 fishermen armed with boat propellers and air tanks. When a stain of colour is spotted, usually at low tide, the fishermen rev up their boat engines to create a current and force the algae back out to sea, sometimes running them for three hours.
At the same time, they pump oxygen into fish cages to give them extra protection. "We're waging a war," Mr Fok Hei (74), a fish farmer in Ma Wan for 28 years, said. "There's no place to run. We have to stay and fight." As happened during the bird flu crisis in December, the public has been given contradictory advice about the dangers to health. The Agriculture and Fisheries Department says the dominant organism found in the red tide is gyrodinium aureolum, which it claims has not produced toxins.
However, the head of eco-toxicology at Hong Kong University, Prof Mike Dickman, says the organism could produce three separate types of toxin. One of the toxins produced by gyrodinium aureolum - neurotoxin - produces a tingling sensation on the lips and then, depending on how much contaminated fish has been consumed, impedes impulses between nerves and the brain. Symptoms include nausea and dizziness and in severe cases, the poisoning can be fatal.
As the Hong Kong chief executive, Mr Tung Chee-hwa, visited fish farms on outlying Lamma Island yesterday to see the damage, Ms Chan told reporters people would be wise to select freshwater fish and other chilled fish from other parts of the world. She said anybody who decided to eat the sea fish should remove the gills and innards. Considered a delicacy by some, these parts could contain toxins if affected by the algae. The health director also said fish affected by the algae contained toxin but so far it had not reached the dangerous level set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
However, WHO scientists yesterday admitted in Geneva they had no research on the potential health hazards for people swimming in contaminated water or eating fish poisoned by red tide toxins. The algae have proved a menace off the southern mainland of China, with fish farmers in Nanao reporting a loss of £500,000 after 20 tonnes of fish fry died in the red tide this month.
The environmental group, Friends of the Earth, blames pollution from factories in Shenzhen, and says it highlights signs that overpopulation combined with environmental neglect poses the biggest threat to Hong Kong's future. The algae are boosted by organic pollution from the sewage Hong Kong pumps into the sea.
The crisis has become more acute since the weekend when news of the red tide broke. The waters of some fish farms are becoming choked with rotting fish. The Agriculture and Fisheries Department is arranging the removal of the fish as quickly as possible, a spokesman said.