SOS - Save Our Seas Campaign

WWF Proposed New Economic Model for Northeast Waters

On July 13th, 2005 WWF met the Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, to outline the basic proposals of our SOS Campaign and to lay out a possible new economic model for the north-east waters of Hong Kong to present a win-win proposal for conservation and the local community.

Port Shelter © Adam Minu

We proposed to designate Tolo Harbour, Port Shelter and all marine parks as "no-take" zones, where all fishing is banned. The no-take zones currently proposed by AFCD in the Fisheries Protection Ordinance would amount to only 2% of Hong Kong’s territorial waters and the impact will be negligible. Our proposed no-take zones would cover 9.8% of Hong Kong’s territorial waters.

We cited Goat Island Reserve in New Zealand as a successful example of no-take zones where the largest snapper are eight times the size of snapper outside the Reserve, and 14 times more numerous. We also emphasized that while the local fishermen were originally opposed to the no-take declaration, they are now the strongest proponents of the policy. The reason is because their economic well-being has actually improved either with new jobs in the tourist industry or through improved value of their fish catch.

We also stressed that some initial investment will be needed such as compensation for the local fishermen for loss of income from fishing in the no-take areas and retraining programmes for fishermen for their potential new roles. We are confident that the longer-term economic benefits to the local communities will far outweigh these costs.

We have explained our proposals to a selected group of fishermen representatives. We have emphasized that WWF is not seeking to destroy their livelihoods, rather we are trying to improve them through a system of sustainable fishery management.

We will now be presenting our revised proposals to our Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department to explain in detail the benefits from our stance. We will stress to AFCD that they must take a proactive role in conserving our marine habitat, and that some tough decisions are required. We may be calling upon your support to add some public "weight" to our arguments.

After our presentation to AFCD, our next step is to continue our communications with the government, fishermen groups, Tai Po and Sai Kung District Boards and legislators to get their support for the proposal. It is our intention to involve as many groups as possible in our solution to this marine threat.