Some of our ideas and thoughts about the implementation include:
- Development of Aquaculture and fry hatcheries business. We believe this is a good idea however Fish farming can be an environmental disaster if not implemented with due care and attention to some of the pitfalls around waste management and sources for fish feed.
- Recreational fishing is also a good potential area for more sustainable livelihoods for fishermen. However recreational fishing does need to be controlled. This fishing should be licensed and permitted areas for fishing setup.
- Controlling fishing effort including the banning of trawling in Hong Kong is to be welcomed. We would also suggest that some controls on the use of gillnets needs to be introduced and enhanced monitoring of total catch is needed so that the effectiveness of measures can be ascertained and adjusted if necessary.
- Conservation of Fisheries resources. Setting up of Fisheries Protection Areas and the stopping of commercial fishing in marine parks is to be welcomed. To make these proposals effective we believe that areas need to be set aside as “no-take” zones and fishing efforts further controlled by setting up and licensing for fishable areas.
More detail of our implementation ideas can be found in our reply, which can be found HERE