Living Smart

IV PUBLIC POLICY & SOCIAL SCIENCE 134 135 worsening poverty among the elderly by reforming taxation and possibly even introducing a form of universal pension. This issue gets overlooked because most young and middle aged population, rich and poor, are healthy. It’ s when they enter their twilight years – when chronic and acute physical and mental illnesses strike – that a family’ s economic situation would vastly affect their health outcomes and limit their chances for longer, healthier lives. Aging is inevitable, so are the problems that come with it. But, with both short and long-term measures, from improving elderly communal facilities to comprehensive retirement planning, our elderly could live long and healthy without financial burden. Published on June 12, 2019 Treading water on sustainable fisheries Prof. Gerald R. PATCHELL Associate Professor, Divisions of Environment and Sustainability, Public Policy, and Social Science O ur fishery gave birth to a love of seafood, but it is also contributing to the global fish stocks decline. We degraded it through overfishing, pollution and reclamation before building a fleet to ravage fisheries in other places. Many cities have actually done the same. Ironically, calls to save global fish stocks come from cities that sacrificed their own fisheries. Yet, Hong Kong also shows the way to a solution. It retains a resilient population of people who fish, those with the expertise and toughness to build a sustainable fishery, that is, such as those where catch volume and fishing practices allow for continual regeneration of stock, while enabling fishermen to achieve a decent standard of living. People in the industry will overfish and abuse the ecosystem to provide more income if they can’ t afford a living. But our highly adaptable fishermen can demonstrate a global model for sustainable fishery. This model is inspired by fishermen in Sai Kung, who constantly adapt to an increasingly sophisticated society and economy. Before World War II, they lived aboard wind-driven sampans and junks, then converted to diesels and trawling. When local fisheries were depleted, many went offshore and others turned to fish farms. However, cheap and unsustainably caught or farmed fish