Hong Kong is best known as a bustling harbour, a financial centre and a shoppers’ paradise, with a dense burgeoning population of seven million impacting its natural environment. Yet, away from the skyscrapers and the pressures of anthropogenic influence, Hong Kong has a record of 5,943 marine species according to a recent review by a research group led by Professor Gray A. Williams of The Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) and School of Biological Sciences, the University of Hong Kong (HKU). This 1.5-year study funded by the Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) was published in Biodiversity and Conservation recently.