Category: Marine conservation in Hong Kong

A report in the Ming Pao (August 5th 2008, Click here for article) , points out that discarded gill nets (“ghost”) are killing large quantities of marine life at the HKUST pier.  Clean-up efforts have lead to the HKUST applying

Living Seas Hong Kong has written a formal reply to the AFCD’s recent communications on the whale shark tragedy. In this letter we outline specific changes that we want to see in the legislation as well as suggest that the

The SCMP has published almost two pages around marine conservation issues.   The following article talks about the lack of protection in Hong Kong for marine species. Click here for scan of SCMP article   A good article but my

The tragic killing of two whale sharks in June has highlighted clearly the lack of protection for endangered marine animals in Hong Kong.  The purpose of this article is to succinctly highlight the major gaps.

There are 3 relevant ordinances in Hong Kong covering wild animals and marine life.

1. WILD ANIMALS PROTECTION ORDINANCE (Chapter 170 of the government legislation)
2. PROTECTION OF ENDANGERED SPECIES OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS ORDINANCE (Chapter 586)
3. FISHERIES ORDINANCE (Chapter 171)

We have been seeing some standard replies coming through from the EPD as a result of our letter writing campaign. There are some small variations but the message is the same in each of these replies.   A sample letter

Living Seas Hong Kong has found out from a reliable source that in the middle of June, some five days after the first incident, a Hong Kong fisherman caught another whale shark.  The shark was caught in an area near

The following was released and sent out to a wide group of international conservation groups and international media   JUVENILE WHALE SHARK (RHINCODON TYPUS) KILLED IN HONG KONG WATERS   (HONG KONG 1st July 2008), 06TH June 2008, a 6m

Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 大家好：   這是一個緊急呼籲，急需你的支持及參與。 近日在本港水域發現鯨鯊死亡的事件實在不應發生。鯨鯊是被尾拖漁船捕獲，並拖到香港仔水域。在被放生之前，它一度在污染的海水中掙扎，而且不能動彈。   你會否知道在香港： 鯨鯊並未受到法例保護。除了在被售賣及換取金錢後。 若鯨鯊上岸後死亡，亦沒有受到法例保護。 魚類及海洋無脊椎動物不包括於《野生動物保護條例》。   容許這種事件發生實為人所不齒。為確保同類事故不再發生，漁民及政府需要明白： 鯨鯊是國際重要物種，受絕種問題威脅。因此受到各種的國際條約所保護。 鯨鯊有潛質成為海洋旅遊的景點。在菲律賓，估計鯨鯊每年在單一景點能為本地經濟帶來美金623,000收益。而在西澳，單單兩個月已能帶來美金780萬收益。 在亞洲很多國家，本地漁民已積極參與拯救鯨鯊的活動。   勃勃海洋需要你支持這個目標。我們誠邀你致函行政長官、環保署、漁農自然護理署、你所屬的區議會議員；或致電電台節目及與傳媒對話。請進行任何你認為必須做的事情。立即行動，避免慘劇再次發生！ 請告訴我們你的想法…並進入以下連結提出意見   按此進入勃勃海洋鯨鯊慘劇部份 Hi This is a call for action.  Your help and involvement is

  Living Seas Hong Kong has written and sent out a bi-lingual email to a wide contact list including dive centres, dive clubs and equipment manufacturers.   We want as many people and groups as possible to start to spread

The killing of two Whale Sharks in June 2008 should never have happened. This tragic event has highlighted the lack of protection for marine species in Hong Kong waters.  Did you know that marine fish and marine invertebrates are specifically EXCLUDED

The AFCD has further responded in an email committment to Living Seas Hong Kong that education and publicity efforts would be strengthened to the local fishing community about how to identify endangered species, the need for protecting species as well