Marine Parks in Hong Kong - Conservation Concerns

Conservation Concerns

The major concerns in relation to Hong Kong's marine parks, as announced by various green groups include:

1. Fish surveys from the marine parks are not showing a recovery of fish numbers.
2. Marine ecology appear to be out of balance, with occasional surges of invertebrates, such as coral eating snails in Hoi Ha Wan.
3. Continued decline of the long standing fisheries industry in Hong Kong. Adequately protected Marine Protected Areas ("MPA") in other regimes has been shown to improve overall fisheries yields

Green groups point towards the following factors as needing attention.

1. Significant reduction of fishing pressure in Marine Parks from both indigenous villagers and from "Bona fide" (read commercial) fishermen.
2. Stop all damaging fishing methods in marine parks such as the use of narrow filament nets. Using these nets are a non targeted fishing technique and because they are low cost they are readily abandoned, causing ongoing damage.
3. Size of the marine parks are inadequate as a conservation tool. They currently cover less than 1% of Hong Kong's marine areas. Various conservation groups are suggesting that these need to increase to at least 40%.
4. Inadequate patrolling and protection of the fisheries resources in the parks. The AFCD is not provided with adequate resource to stop illegal fishing, especially from mainland fishermen.