Sustainable Seafood in Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s insatiable hunger for seafood is second only to Japan, with both these countries charting over four times the per capita world average of seafood consumption. Every corner of Hong Kong is filled with eateries serving delicious seafood. Apart from that, there is heavy buying and consumption by residents. The obvious question that comes to mind is, from where does all the seafood come from? About 70% import and 30% domestic production. This leads to another query: Is this sustainable? Both apparently and factually, the answer is no.
Indiscriminate fishing for decades has caused extreme loss of marine biodiversity not only around Hong Kong but whole of south Asia. Some of the fishing methods are more destructive than others. An example is bottom trawling. Bottom trawling involves dragging a heavy net on the seafloor, hauling up not only fish but also a lot of coral and other species caught unintentionally. Other problems that come to the fore are pollution negative socio-economic impacts.
The Hong Kong Government had banned trawling in Hong Kong’s waters toward the end of 2012 due to various reports on depletion of biodiversity and mounting pressure from NGOs and the pro-conservation camp in general. Since then some of the fish have returned in the local waters, only to be fished by illegal trawlers. The trawling ban had negatively impacted Hong Kong’s traditional fishermen whose livelihood depended on seafood. Though the Agriculture and Fisheries Conservation Department (AFCD) has spent millions of dollars on equipment and lease buyback and transition toward sustainable fishing, problems faced by the local fishermen haven’t lessened substantially. They often claim that fish are trawled overnight and they are left with nothing to catch.
These issues are followed by some ethical questions over consuming seafood. Fishermen in countries like Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines, from where Hong Kong sources a substantial amount of seafood (both registered and unregistered), sometimes resort to methods like spraying cyanide to stun fish before catching, resulting in the destruction of all reefs and other species nearby. Media has also reported the existence of slave labor in some of these regions, especially in the shrimp production units. Plus it is reported that Hong Kong is one of the principal hubs for worldwide unregistered trade valued at about a billion US dollars. All these issues put together make seafood consumption a value decision rather than a simple fact.
After intense discussions and reading, our group came up with four major policy solutions categorized into two types, punitive and incentivizing. Among punitive measures were stricter enforcement of existing laws and prohibitive taxation (20 % or more) on fishing and selling of endangered species. It has been reported that patrolling is not sufficient to ward off illegal trawlers and the fines that have been imposed till now are not exemplary enough to dissuade poachers. Additionally, demand of several endangered species of fish is quite high in Hong Kong’s markets, triggering illegal fishing. A prohibitive tax on fishing of these species will gently nudge the market toward sustainable practices on both demand and supply side.
The proposed incentives consisted of a combination of technology and updating existing policies on fisheries development. Firstly, a compulsory GPS tracking scheme would be introduced where subsidized devices would be installed in all Hong Kong fishing vessels. The purpose of this system would be to provide real time data to fishermen showing the presence of vessels around Hong Kong waters in order to prevent overfishing in certain spots. It would also help the law enforcement to keep track of vessels.
Our final policy recommendation was to update the existing policies governing the Sustainable Fisheries Development Fund (SDFD). This fund of 500 million Hong Kong dollars was created to help Hong Kong move toward sustainable seafood production and consumption. Till now, only a small percentage of the fund has been released. A certain portion of the fund should be earmarked for K-12 education and engagement programs for both consumers and producers. It would be prudent to channelize a chunk of the fund to research and development aimed at innovative technologies like vertical aquaculture. Like vertical farms, it could be possible to build and maintain fish farms in multistory buildings, increasing Hong Kong’s own seafood production.
The above policy solutions are meant to boost domestic production and reduce dependence on imports. Moreover, it is always important to remember that imported fish is still being fished somewhere and places are losing their biodiversity while catering to Hong Kong’s demand. Hong Kong’s transition toward sustainable seafood would bolster sustainability at other places as well.