As the global overfishing crisis deepens, so the need to reduce fishing effort and protect vulnerable marine species increases. The Hong Kong fishery is not immune to these global trends. Indeed, it unarguably lies towards the more serious extreme, both in terms of overexploitation and in the clear need for management attention and conservation action. Yet, fishery management and marine conservation (with the notable exception of the Cap D’Aguilar Marine Reserve) seem as elusive now as when I arrived almost a decade ago.

To identify a realistic way forward, it is important to ask why so little of any substance has been achieved in local marine fishery management. This is despite funding, expert advice, marine research, the social and cultural importance of seafood, and declines in fishes, crabs and prawns in local waters (see Porcupines! passim, Lee et al., 2000, Leung and Leung, 2000; Cheung, 2001). Hong Kong’s reefs have among the lowest biomasses of fish per unit area ever recorded from coral habitats (Cornish, 2000), while the mean fish size taken in the 1990s by trawlers was < 10g, with most species within their juvenile size range (Sadovy, 1998; Leung, 2000). Twelve out of 17 commercially important species are overfished, the rest fully exploited (ERM, 1998). There is, without doubt, an urgent need to act.

One of the top fishery centres in the world, the University of British Columbia’s Fisheries Centre, simulated Hong Kong’s local fishery and concluded that "Continuation of the status quo without mitigation measures will lead to further fishing down the marine food web and shifts in ecosystem structure with a high probability of ecosystem collapse and attendant loss of economic and social benefits" (Pitcher et al., 2002). Yet, almost 5 years after the original sub-consultancy on the local fishery came out in January 1998 [the simulation was largely based on this earlier report], there is no licensing system (see Feedback Porc! 25) and not one ‘no-take’ Fishery Protection Area in place because the necessary legislative amendments to the Fishery Protection Ordinance (FPO) Cap 171 have still not been made.

How much longer must we wait and what can be done more immediately to address the serious problems in the local fishery and faced by many marine species? Two directions are suggested. The first, already in the FPO, while not the best possible solution, could at least be applied as an interim mitigation measure; it is also consistent with other fishery initiatives being taken in the wider region. Article 4(1)(g) allows for the closure of areas in Hong Kong to protect spawning adults during their periods of reproduction. The summer fishing moratorium already in place in inshore Chinese waters of the South China Sea is intended to achieve just such protection. Species in Hong Kong could likewise be protected during the same season (when most of them spawn anyway - Sadovy, 1998) under this Ordinance.

The second direction is to stem loss in biodiversity by identifying marine species and habitats of conservation concern (see Fellowes et al. p. 20 this volume for assessment criteria). A number of key reef and estuarine dependent species, many once locally valuable and important commercially, have declined to extremely low levels. These include species of shark, croaker, wrasse, parrotfish and grouper, as well as invertebrates, like lobsters, that are especially vulnerable to fishing and habitat degradation because of their life histories. Identification of fishes of conservation concern and protection of the natural habitats on which they depend are necessary if these species are to persist in local waters. Properly placed, fully protected marine reserves are proven and valuable conservation tools, and may also contribute to local fisheries (Roberts, 2000). More reserves are needed in Hong Kong.

Taking measures to control fishing effort and conserve marine biodiversity by protecting vulnerable species and habitats would also reflect a growing public concern for, and awareness of, the marine environment. Professor Pitcher and his coworkers have clearly warned of the ecological, social and economic prices to be paid for not acting soon; how much longer must we wait?

Bibliography

Cheung, W.L. (2001). Changes in Hong Kong’s capture fisheries during the 20^th century and reconstruction of the marine ecosystem of local inshore waters in the 1950s. Mphil Thesis, University of Hong Kong.

Cornish, A.S. (2000). Fish assemblages associated with shallow, fringing coral communities in sub-tropical Hong Kong: species composition, spatial and temporal patterns. PhD Thesis, University of Hong Kong.

Environmental Resources Management (1998). Fisheries Resources and fishing operations in Hong Kong waters. Final Report to the Agriculture and Fisheries Department, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

Lee, S.Y., Blackmore, G. & Rainbow, P.S. (2000). Change in the epibenthic crab assemblages of the southeastern waters of Hong Kong: a comparison of the 1992, 1995 and 1998 trawl programmes. In: The Marine Biology of the South China Sea (ed. B. Morton). Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the Marine Biology of the South China Sea. Hong Kong University Press, pp. 535-551.

Leung, A.W.Y. (2000). Effects on the benthic fish fauna during and after large-scale dredging in the southeastern waters of Hong Kong. In: The Marine Biology of the South China Sea (ed. B. Morton). Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the Marine Biology of the South China Sea. Hong Kong University Press, pp. 651-672.

Leung, S.F., & Leung, K.F. (2000). The prawn resources of the southeastern waters of Hong Kong: a comparison of the 1992, 1995 and 1998 trawl surveys. In: The Marine Biology of the South China Sea (ed. B. Morton). Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the Marine Biology of the South China Sea. Hong Kong University Press, pp. 619-649.

Pitcher, T., Buchary, E. & Trujillo, P. (2002). Spatial simulation of Hong Kong’s Marine Ecosystem: Forecasting with MPAs and Human-Made Reefs. Fisheries Centre Research Reports 10 (3): 1-16.

Roberts, C.M. (2000). Selecting marine reserve locations: optimality versus opportunism. Bulletin of Marine Science 66: 581-592.

Sadovy, Y. (1998). Patterns of reproduction in marine fishes of Hong Kong and adjacent waters. In: The Marine Biology of the South China Sea (ed. B. Morton). Proceedings of the Third International Conference on the Marine Biology of the South China Sea. Hong Kong University Press, pp. 261-274.

Yvonne Sadovy

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