Ban On Trawling In Hong Kong Waters

Paolo Alvera, (Discovery Bay Yacht Club) DBYC Commodore, wrote to us to seek our support for the proposed ban on trawling in Hong Kong waters. The proposed ban has been mulled since the WWF met with Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, in 2005, when they proposed a new business model that aimed to achieve increases in tourism and related benefits of up to HK$2billion per year.

Fisheries groups are resisting the proposed ban on trawling saying that it will be impossible to enforce anyway, as much of the fishing already comes from technically illegal fishing by Mainland based trawlers, that the enforcers are powerless to stop. It also appears they would rather ignore precedents set in other parts of the world - where enforced no-take zones have dramatically increased fisheries stocks in adjacent take-zones - in preference to simply fishing Hong Kong waters out and irrespective of the potential benefits. The argument goes: with a ban on trawling in Hong Kong waters the trawlers will have to go further out to sea to catch fish and that will increase the cost to the consumer.

The Hong Kong Government seems to be leaning towards a ban on trawling and selected no-take zones but the political wrangling may result in limited bans and zones that are too small to have any medium to long term value. That being the case, within a few years the trawlers will have to travel further out in any event to catch their fish and the opportunity to protect Hong Kong waters for the purposes of increased tourism opportunities will be lost for a generation at least.

Listening to arguments on both sides it seems the fishermen are promoting a lose-lose situation because they lack the detailed knowledge of the alternatives or simply fail to comprehend the impact of maintaining the status quo; while the promoters of no-take zones are looking for a win-win situation that sidelines the fishermen, for the most part, into retirement.

From the perspective of fully developing the potential of Hong Kong's waters for tourism, we fully support the concept of a ban on trawling and no-take zones in Hong Kong waters. Our support is given in recognition of erudite analysis of no-take zones, established in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the Philippines, where the evidence unequivocally confirms that no-take zones deliver excellent medium to long term benefits to both commercial fishing activities and to all water sports tourism related activities.

Protecting our seas with no-take zones and a ban on trawling, in areas with fragile marine-eco-systems, is good for global food security; continuing to take and trawl will eventually kill us all.

Alitaptap