The city’s development minister had earlier predicted that the island would be closed for at least a month for further geological research, citing the coming monsoon season and experts’ hopes that more fossils might be found.

The area is also part of one of two geological zones in Sai Kung designated as a geopark by the UN heritage agency Unesco in 2011.

Sai Kung Volcanic Rock Region and Northeast New Territories Sedimentary Rock Region were later recognized as a Unesco Global Geopark in 2015.

Harbor Island is one of the few protected areas in the geopark where visitors are “not encouraged” to go ashore and are instead advised to appreciate it from afar via boat tours.

“We believe it will take at least a month, if not longer, to collect samples on Harbor Island,” Development Minister Bernadette Linn Hon-ho said Saturday. he said.