Large trawlers a real safety hazard in recreational waters

Large local fishing trawlers continue to use deep nets in coastal waters such as Tai Tam Bay, Repulse Bay and Deepwater Bay.

Late last year the government, following public consultation initiated by the Committee on Sustainable Fisheries, declared that it would ban trawling in Hong Kong waters among other sensible measures, but this has not been followed up. It is only a matter of time before one of these trawlers causes a serious accident.

Last week, I was steering a six-man outrigger canoe from Cape D'Aguilar Point into Tai Tam Bay. My boat was among nine canoes, whose paddlers had come from Lantau, Lamma, Sai Kung and elsewhere on Hong Kong Island, for a friendly weekend race in Tai Tam. There were also windsurfers who were sailing from Stanley Beach across the mouth of Tai Tam Bay and back. Not more than a few hundred meters away is the Hobie Cat Club, whose catamarans were out on the waters as well. In the inner bay, pleasure junks and speed boats towing wake boarders also enjoyed the day.

As a steersman, I must avoid other recreational boats, but what surprised me was a large trawler that came steaming into the middle of our flotilla of outriggers at considerable speed with a bottom trawling net trailing hundreds of metres behind.

Our canoes were scattered by the trawler and the float of my outrigger became entangled under the rope that was pulling the net. We were an experienced crew and fortunately extricated ourselves. But it requires no feat of imagination to consider a more serious outcome and, as recreational use of Tai Tam increases, this will be the end result unless the fishermen stop this destructive form of fishing.

There have been 1,000 studies that make the case to abandon deep net commercial fishing in coastal waters. The children of today's ageing fisher families will have no part in the business. The daily catch scarcely covers the cost of the diesel and it is this fact that encourages the trawlers to stay close to home, so they abandon putting out to sea. By all means figure out some way to compensate the fishing industry, but let's put a stop to inshore fishing now.