Malacological, wetland and marine international workshops have been convened in Hong Kong at approximately three-year intervals from 1977 to 1998. This volume of 35 papers examines the marine environmental changes that have taken place in Hong Kong from 1977 to 2001 in relation to the research results that have been engendered by the workshops. Here, eminent marine scientists and local researchers who have attended the workshops express their views on the many changes in Hong Kong’s surrounding waters. These views are important as they are derived from knowledge accumulated over a time-frame of decades (the last 25 years of the second and the initial days of the third millennia) and as Hong Kong transforms itself from a colonial backwater to a modern city as a Special Administrative Region of China. Topics covered in this conference proceedings all relate to the published results of the 1977 to 1998 workshops and include studies of the impacts on Hong Kong’s marine environment by many forms of pollution, overfishing, dredging and reclamation. Recent local advances in marine conservation are also discussed. The volume is essential reading for all regional scientists and students of marine environments in the sub-tropics and the South China Sea.