Banning of commercial fishing Print E-mail
香港與海洋保育 Hong Kong & marine conservation - 香港的海洋保育 Marine conservation in Hong Kong
Monday, 30 November 2009 23:48

Donald Tsang, the Hong Kong Chief Executive, announced in his policy address for 2009-2010 the plan to ban commercial fishing in Hong Kong's four marine parks.  This slightly reworded announcement was a repeat of his policy address for the previous year.


As we have previously reported, the proposed legislative change has been discussed in the January 2009 meeting of the Legco Panel on Environmental Affairs.  The Panel met again on the 23rd November 2009, the background briefing papers can be found HERE 


The ban will help to revitalise the marine environment in the parks and will help increase fish populations in the marine park area, eventually fish populations will increase in surrounding areas as well.  The proposal needs to include increase policing to stop illegal fishing activities in these areas.


Under the latest proposals the fishermen with "bone fide" fishing licenses will be paid an Ex Gratis Allowance equivilent to seven years catch.   This seems to be fair and in our opinion is a generous compensation to fishermen, afterall they will still be able to fish.


Unfortunately the legislators still seem to have the idea that efforts to revitalise the marine environment is detrimental to the fishermens livelihood.  We beg to disagree.    Continuing to extract fisheries resources in the current manner is killing the industry and ensuring the death of the long standing fishing community in Hong Kong.


Living Seas Hong Kong has long campaigned for an expansion of the existing marine parks as well as the setting up of extensive areas of completely protected marine reserves.  Banning commercial fishing is only the first tiny step towards this goal.

Comments (2)
  • Y-m-d H:i:s |Registered| crwbja
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    Now that Tuna and Shark have received no protection from the recent talks in Doha I see no way forward except to increase the introduction of artificial reefs and introduce more marine reserves.
    Now that CLP want to build a wind farm off our east coast why not have the pillons made that they protect and support spawing of fish.Small indentations the size of ricebowls could be molded into the pillons below the water line to aid in the aggregation of fish.You can bet that the Marine Dept will also close the area to boating and fishing so why not make it a marine reserve at the same time.
    I also am in the opinion that old vehicles once cleansed of fluids should also be dumped at sea below 30metres to aid the aggregation of fish.This would clean up the NT and aid natural fish production.Containers below 40metres amongst the pillons would soon create enormous natural habitat for sea life.
    Who can help me push the making of a marine reserve around the proposed windfarm east of the Nine...

  • Y-m-d H:i:s |SAdministrator| dod  - Artificial reefs and MR
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    I agree that the number one priority is to setup more marine reserves (where all forms of extraction are banned) Artificial reefs can be placed in these protected areas to aggregate and attract fish into the area.

    Unfortunately the existing artificial reef program in Hong Kong was a failure, because the reefs effectively became a great place for fishermen to find fish and did not help in recovery of fish stocks. The AR's need to be protected.

    The plans drawn up for the wind farm includes a large protect marine area. It would probably be a good thing, but for myself I don't like wind farms. I much prefer the natural scenery and I want the government to setup proper marine reserves, starting with the existing marine parks.

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