The true price of Hong Kong's insatiable appetite for seafood
Despite the ban on local trawling, habitats further afield are still being devastated to meet Hongkongers' consumption of seafood. Without action, the species we eat will begin disappearing, scientists tell Stuart Heaver
The end of this month marks the third anniversary of the imposition of the ban on trawling in Hong Kong waters and, for the first time, government officials have revealed that scientific assessments indicate preliminary signs of recovery within local fisheries, which had been almost stripped bare by decades of overfishing and environmental degradation.
"In terms of preliminary findings, we find in the areas which were trawled most frequently - in western and southeastern areas - the recovery is more obvious," says Louise Li Wai-hung, senior fisheries officer at the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD). "In terms of biomass and abundance, the signs of recovery are there."
Good news that may be but while officials and scientists calculate the details of the recovery, calls for more action to protect local fish and the marine environment are growing louder.
For centuries, local fisheries supplied all the seafood Hong Kong needed and fishing remains a key component of the city's identity, culture and economy. Now, though, the typical Hongkonger consumes more than 70kg of seafood a year, four times the global average, and whereas 90 per cent of it used to be caught locally, that figure is now close to 10 per cent. Scientists and conservationists fear our insatiable appetite for fish is still devastating marine habitats, here and in other parts of Asia. They warn that something needs to change fast, before key commercial species (the ones we eat) start disappearing altogether.