Hong Kong has seen a growing interest in recreational scuba diving, with more and more people joining diving trips and getting diving licenses. However, the current intensive diving activities, with no clear guidance, may lead to damage to popular diving sites, exceeding the environment carrying capacity and leading to habitat degradation or loss of ecological value.

Sharp Island has rich biodiversity and is one of seven sites identified by WWF as conservation priority sites. Because of its high diversity of coral species and high accessibility, it is the most popular diving sites in Hong Kong according to our questionnaire survey. In addition, large sandy areas at Sharp Island are suitable for dive trainings, making it the most popular dive training hot spot in Hong Kong. However, the current unregulated recreational diving activities are affecting the marine biodiversity.