Posted on March 30, 2026
By Tom Grundy
The 50-year-old Sea Diamond, a dilapidated cutter suction dredger, was partly submerged when HKFP visited the vessel off Ha Mei Wan on March 19.
A Marine Department spokesperson told HKFP last Monday that they received a complaint from a member of the public in early January. “With information provided by the shipowner, water ingress was detected while the vessel was being towed, thus forcing it to be beached at its current location to prevent it from sinking,” the spokesperson said.
The department added it would “initiate prosecution as appropriate,” with the owner facing a HK$10,000 fine for failing to report the incident within 24 hours. A salvage plan is in place, and the dredger is expected to be removed in April.
Dredgers are used as underwater excavators, cutting and sucking up material from the seabed before discharging it via pipelines.
The ageing Sea Diamond was built in Singapore in 1976. It is unclear who the current owner is.
According to Hong Kong’s Shipping and Port Control Ordinance, if stricken vessels are not removed by the owner, the Marine Department will make arrangements and recover costs from the owner.
The department also said that “the shipowner has been reminded to take appropriate precautionary measures to prevent oil pollution; to this end, the shipowner has deployed pollution-preventing booms around the vessel.”
The vessel is unpropelled, so no fuel was on board.
However, decaying metal vessels can still release toxic materials such as heavy metals into the ocean. While visiting the vessel, HKFP saw that the protective booms had been breached in several areas.
Island District Councillor Lau Shun-ting did not respond to HKFP’s questions, including queries about pollution concerns, but said on Friday that she was “monitoring” the situation.
