The water qualification rate in the functional zone of the coastal sea areas has been kept at 100% throughout the year, and the average coral coverage rate has exceeded 30%

　　The Bryde's whales come to "visit" Shenzhen Mirs Bay after 16 years later

　　The picture shows the Bryde's whale is hunting in the sea area of Shenzhen Dapeng New District. The picture was supplied by Shenzhen Dapeng New District

　　◆Li Jing

　　Recently, a Bryde's whale appeared in the sea area of Mirs Bay in Shenzhen City of Guangdong Province. There were many interesting moments about this whale, which drew a lot of attention of many citizens.

　　It is reported that this is the first time that the Bryde's whale has appeared again in the sea area of Mirs Bay after 16 years later. Many records have been set up in the past few days, including the second successful recording of the nearshore activity of Bryde's whale in China, and the first successful attachment of beacon for whales and the successful recovery of signals in China.

　　Liao Baolin, a senior engineer at the Shenzhen Institute of Guangdong Ocean University, said that as the national first-class protected animal, Bryde's whale usually appears in clean sea areas with abundant fish. In other words, the whale coming to Shenzhen is a microcosm of the continuous improvement of the marine ecological environment in Dapeng New District in recent years.

　　Depending on the ecological background to tackle the challenges of watershed governance

　　As a national-level marine ecological civilization construction demonstration zone, Dapeng New District has the best ecological endowment in Shenzhen. The sea area is 305 square kilometers, and the overall length of coastline is 128 kilometers, accounting for about 1/2 of that of the whole city. The coastal sea area here has the optimum water quality, and owns coastal wetlands, mangroves, coral reefs, estuaries, bays, islands and other typical marine ecosystems. In the meantime, the biodiversity here is rich. There are more than 60 species of corals distributed in the sea area with an average coral coverage of more than 30%. There are more than 190 species of fish, crustaceans, cephalopods, and shellfish, etc., and more than 130 species of phytoplankton such as algae, etc.

　　For the natural resources with natural endowments, it requires more "strong" measures to protect them. In recent years, the water pollution control was treated as the largest livelihood project by Dapeng New District, the total investment was more than RMB 1.3 billion, the construction of 270 kilometers of sewage pipe networks in 27 districts, 33 rivers (river sections) comprehensive management projects were implemented, and more than 1,000 transformation projects of municipal mixed-flow pipes and transformation and rehabilitation projects of 11 kilometers of defective pipe network were completed. By virtue of implementing the special actions for the remediation of wading non-point source pollution and the "Sharp Sword" law enforcement, the remediation of "scattered, disordered and pollution discharging" enterprises has been enhanced, and 43 rivers emptying into the sea have been promoted to achieve 100% pollution interception.

　　These actions were highly effective. In 2020, the average water quality of all rivers in the new district reached Grade IV or above, 90% of which arrived at Grade III or above, which reached the best level since historical monitoring. The water qualification rate of river water function zones increased from 78.3% in 2015 to 100%. The water qualification rates of the functional areas and the source of drinking water in the coastal sea areas have been maintained at 100% for consecutive years.

　　Establish a co-governance mechanism and consolidate the land-sea coordination

　　To protect the water ecology of the coastal sea areas, it is essential to enhance the land and sea coordination. Dapeng New District is always dedicating to perfect the working mechanism of the "Five Joints and Co-governance" of the marine environment, including ecological environment, planning and natural resources, marine law enforcement, maritime affairs, and maritime police, to refine the implementation of sharing, consultation, law enforcement and inspection, by which a cooperative and collaborative promotion of the management of off-shore sewage outfalls, the collection of marine garbage, prevention, the pollution control in coastal sea areas and other works. Take the lead in developing the implementation schemes for the comprehensive treatment of coastline and marine garbage in the whole city, set up a comprehensive management working mechanism involving government departments, social organizations and other parties, safeguard the "lifeline" of the marine ecological environment, and utilize drones to complete the "inspection, measurement and tracing" for the sewage outfalls on 128 kilometers of coastline in an all-round way aiming at realizing the accurate control of land and sea pollution sources and guaranteeing that the quality of sea water can solidly meet the standards.

　　"Thanks for the good foundation of coordination of land and sea in the New District, this whale protection action can achieve the rapid linkage, efficient disposal and scientific plan." the relevant responsible person of Dapeng Administration of the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment said.

　　Meanwhile, Dapeng New District is also positively propelling the participation by all people in the ecological civilization construction. On one hand, it focuses on cultivating a batch of publicity and education institutions of ecological civilization construction, has established the non-profit foundation for ecological civilization construction of Dapeng Peninsula of "Charitable Trust + Special Fund" and raised more than RMB 20 million to fund and foster the innovative public welfare and charitable projects that promote the ecological civilization construction of the Dapeng Peninsula; On the other hand, relying on the "Dive For Love" Coral Conservation Station, Ecological Civilization Propaganda and Education Experience Center, volunteer teams, etc., it has launched the activities such as "Dive For Love Classroom" and "Mobile Ecomuseum" and organized the national clean beach public welfare activities, and the participation and satisfaction rate of public ecological civilization construction remains at the forefront of the whole city.

　　Insist on planning and leading to build a beautiful bay

　　It is known that Dapeng New District has compiled the country's first Marine Carbon Sink Accounting Guidelines, in which 7 carbon sink types (including mangroves, salt marshes, and shellfish, etc.) and 11 carbon sink indicators were screened out to promote the conversion of marine ecological resource value.

　　In June of this year, the "Three-year Action Plan for High-quality Promotion of Ecological and Environmental Protection in Dapeng New District" was launched, and 80 specific and feasible tasks were formulated, and the national, provincial and municipal decisions and arrangements on promoting green development and harmonious co-existence between human and nature were firstly implemented. Simultaneously, the plan and comprehensive implementation plan for the construction of high-quality beautiful bays in the Dapeng New District was prepared, and the marine ecological environment management was led by the construction of "beautiful bays" in order to contribute the "Dapeng Plan" for Shenzhen to create a model of beautiful China of harmonious co-existence between human and nature.

　　What is worth mentioning is that, in order to improve the marine resource development and protection system, and to further advance the rational exploitation and sustainable utilization of the oceans, the section of "Sea Area Pollution Prevention" was specifically set up in the Regulations on Ecological and Environmental Protection of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone announced by Shenzhen City on July 6, by which not only a sea and land overall planning, "determining land by sea" total pollutant discharge control system was established, and the management system of sea discharge outlets and rivers entering the sea was improved, but also the emergency management for sudden marine environmental incidents of coastal units, sea garbage cleaning and pollutant discharge from marine ships and mud transportation operations and other actions were regulated.

　　At present, Dapeng New District is preparing a rescue plan for Bryde's whales and plans to organize drills with the least delay possible. Relevant departments in Shenzhen are also studying the addition of closed fishing areas in the coastal sea areas to fully escort Bryde's whales freely swimming in Mirs Bay.