Hong Kong's Deep Bay oyster farms are being hit by warming, saltier water and stronger typhoons. The local oyster, Crassostrea hongkongensis, is plumper than the common Pacific oyster and suits less salty estuary water. Farmers say mass die-offs that once hit about once a decade now strike every three to six years, and smaller die-offs happen almost every year. Warm spring temperatures, delayed rains that fail to dilute the salt, low oxygen and stress make oysters vulnerable to pathogens. Scientists at the University of Hong Kong are breeding a super oyster by predicting which strains survive high salinity, using gene comparisons and survival data.

The Edo period ran from the early 1600s to 1868, when the Tokugawa shogunate ruled Japan and around 300 regional daimyo, or feudal lords, governed their domains. After Tokugawa Ieyasu won the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the shogunate ended the chaos of the Sengoku period and kept the country largely at peace. The regime enforced a strict social order, required the daimyo to spend time in the capital, and pursued isolationist foreign policy. Meanwhile, towns grew, the economy expanded and popular arts such as woodblock prints, theatre and literature flourished among ordinary townspeople.