Living Smart

IV PUBLIC POLICY & SOCIAL SCIENCE 136 137 from overseas crippled the fish farms, as did pollution and reclamation. Fishermen switched to junk trips, seafood restaurants, crewing yachts, and other marine activities, all along supplementing incomes with construction, longshore, factory and other jobs. While most fishermen children found land-based jobs, many keep a marine-based livelihood and are the people most likely to rebuild the industry. However, their ties to the fishery is slipping away. Although the government and NGOs have supported fish farming, employment diversification and protected areas, those policies are outweighed by encouragement to exit fishing and the supplanting of generational succession with low-wage mainland deckhands. I n t he 2018 po l i c y add r e s s , t he gove r nmen t recommended designating new fish culture zones at suitable locations, as well as resuming issuance of new marine fish culture licenses. However, these are only an extension of present policies that do not support the development of a sustainable fishery per se. If Hong Kong can make a metropolitan-scale effort to match sustainable fishery policies with the self-reliance and entrepreneurialism of our fishermen, they will have many more opportunities to thrive. Policies need to allow our fishermen to move in and out of fishing, integrating marine and other activities. At present, the government spends so little developing sustainable fishing technologies and practices, as well as enhancing and protecting fishery areas. We simply can’ t expect fishermen to develop a sustainable fishery by themselves, while Hong Kong gets the bulk of its cheaper supply from other countries. Only by accepting the real costs of establishing a sustainable fishery will we realize the costs we impose on the world’ s oceans and the exploited workforce of fishing. If we can create a powerful model, not only will we walk the talk but also help establish technologies, practices and values to change other fish markets and fisheries. Published on June 26, 2019