A Hong Kong academic detected DNA of the critically endangered Chinese bahaba in local waters for the first time in more than a decade. The finding came last September using environmental DNA technology.
Jack Ip Chi-ho, an assistant professor at Lingnan University’s Division of Science, co-led the study with Wang Junjie from South China Normal University. They developed a genetic identification method to detect traces of Chinese bahaba DNA in the marine environment.
The rare species’ DNA was identified in Hong Kong’s western waters in September last year. This was one month after about 1,300 hatchery-reared juvenile Chinese bahaba were released into the Pearl River Estuary from the mainland. Lingnan University said the finding suggested some of the released fish might have entered Hong Kong waters.
“The new detection technology developed by our research team is highly sensitive, and if a fish has passed through an area and left behind even a tiny amount of eDNA, its presence can be accurately determined,” Ip said. Environmental DNA refers to genetic material shed by organisms into their surroundings.