Eventually, as marine pollution, but also safety issues forced the Hong Kong Government’s hand, fishing vessels were banned from the principal fairways of Victoria Harbour – the bustling hub of the then British colony. But, fishing, by any selleck compound means, was allowed everywhere else in the territory’s waters and the trawlers continued to tractor their trade over the territory’s inshore sea bed. A combination of modern technology,

local sea-faring knowledge and skill, and sheer audacity, allowed the trawlers to fish, literally, tens of metres from the shoreline and such sights do not disappear too easily from one’s memory. They seemed to catch everything and, circumspectly, it has been shown that they did. In 1967, it was estimated that the Hong Kong fishing fleet comprised some 6800 vessels with 56,000 local fishermen working them. By 2000, these numbers had dwindled to 4460 vessels, of which 2500 comprised P4 Alisertib supplier (4 persons) sampans engaged in inshore fishing leaving a total of around 2000 sea-going vessels (Morton, 2000). By 2010, the total number of vessels has declined to 3700, of which 1100 are trawlers and of which, in turn, 700 larger such vessels operate outside Hong Kong’s waters while 400 operate either partly or wholly within them.

The numbers of fishermen working the boats also declined to 8100 (3200 family crew and 4900 mainland deckhands) by 2005 (Morton, 2005) and in 2009 it is estimated that but 6800 (2200 family crew and 4600 mainland deckhands) work the trawler fleet. There are, of course, many reasons for such decreases, including more efficient, larger, vessels but also, as seemingly everywhere, declining catches. When one considers the composition of the 400 strong inshore trawler fleet, not only was it found to constitute 80% of the engine power of the total fishing effort in Hong Kong waters, its composition in terms of pair, stern (otter-board), shrimp (towing 12 fine-mesh nets) and hang (fishing from the surface to the sea bed) trawlers ensured that little if anything could escape its attention and activities. Conservationists have long

argued that the inshore trawler fleet constitutes an unacceptable impact upon inshore waters and a sea bed for which there click here are much more important uses and resources – including a thriving leisure fishing industry and an expanding network of popular public marine parks. In 1998, the, then, Agriculture and Fisheries Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government commissioned a consultancy study which showed that catches had fallen by ∼50% over the preceding decade but that, more worryingly, fry production had decreased by 90%. It was argued by conservation groups that this pointed to the over-fishing of Hong Kong’s inshore, territorial, waters and called for a total ban on all trawling in these nursery areas.