Comment on “Mid-Holocene higher sea level indicators from the south China coast” by W.W.-S. Yim and G. Huang [Mar. Geol. 182 (2002) 225–230]: a regional perspective

The interpretation by Yim and Huang (2002) of our discovery of a relic encrustation of the oyster ( Saccostrea cucullata) 1.9 m above the comparative present intertidal zone at Big Wave Bay on Hong Kong Island needs clarification. It is unlikely that a 4–5-m-higher mid-Holocene sea level is a corollary to this discovery. Their comments related to tidal variance and the incidence of storm surges do not explain the formation. Further, the discovery of the same formations in similar contexts for matching time periods in Malaysia, Indonesia, New Caledonia and Australia and the robust nature of data fits for the time elevation distributions support a global forcing effect, not local circumstances.