Floating business couple plead for increase in city maritime facilities

For three decades, Wong Wing-kuen and his wife Yip Lai-chun have made a living from the sea that surrounds Hong Kong.

In 2001, they relocated their business - renting small fishing boats to locals for day trips - from Tiu Keng Leng to Tseung Kwan O due to a high-rise development.

Every morning before 7.30am, the couple leave their houseboat moored at the mouth of the bay and head to their office, a 22ft fibreglass boat, just metres from their floating home.

They check on their inventory of 40 two-seater motorised fishing boats scattered around the bay, which is home to dozens of other medium-sized boats.

Customers must cross a wooden plank to a makeshift floating pier to hire a fishing boat for HK$200 a day.

Wong, who came to Hong Kong from Guangdong in 1979 and has two adult children who live on land, said his repeated requests to the Marine Department and the Lands Department for better boating facilities had fallen on deaf ears.