RESIDENTS are being urged to refrain from beach-combing in order to avoid damaging the local coastal ecosystem.

On some social media platforms, it has become trendy for users to share pictures and videos of themselves catching green crabs at the Shuangjie River estuary near Qianhai Bay.

One vlogger on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, uploaded a short video showing his capture of approximately 60 green crabs of varying sizes in Qianhai one night in July. In the end, he only kept a few crabs weighing about 200 grams each and released the rest.

His video has spurred wide interest in crab-catching on Douyin. Many netizens have stated that they intend to participate and have asked for the exact location for catching crabs under such posts.

Beach-combing, which was previously often seen on the city’s eastern beaches, has been on the rise in Shenzhen’s downtown and western coastal areas, according to a Shenzhen Evening News report Thursday.

Ma Haipeng, a volunteer dedicated to the protection of the marine environment, attributed the surge in beach-combing to instructional “how-to” posts on social media platforms.

He said that it is now common to see up to 6,000 people engage in beach-combing activities on a 1-kilometer-long stretch of beach in Baguang, Longgang District, at the same time on weekends.

A marine law enforcement officer from the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Planning and Natural Resources, who wasn’t identified, said that there are no specific laws regulating beach-combing in Shenzhen, but profiting from large-scale crab-catching along the coastline is forbidden. Currently it is only illegal to fish along the Shenzhen Bay coast in Futian and Nanshan districts.

“It’s acceptable to catch a crab or two for recreational purposes on the coast, provided that it does not involve food safety issues,” said the officer.

However, according to Ma, such behavior would have an adverse impact on the local coastal ecosystem, “especially in mangrove areas where increased foot traffic will compact the wetland, affect the habitats of crabs, mudskippers, and other organisms, and damage mangrove saplings.”

People are also advised against entering mudflats at low tide because the terrain, with possible deep pits, poses a safety hazard.

(Claudia Wei)