Mai Po Logo: Pied Kingfisher |
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Over 2 km of illegal fish nets removed from
the Deep Bay mudflat
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Every year,
tens of illegal fishermen come across from the Mainland to
collect mudskippers and catch fish on the Hong kong side of
the Deep Bay mudflats. Apart from the disturbance these fishermen
cause to the migratory waterbirds which are trying to rest,
and refuel before the next part of their long migration, these
fishermen have also been known in the past to catch these birds
as well. |
As a result, a joint operation between AFCD
Nature Wardens and WWF Hong Kong staff at Mai Po was carried out on 23 April
2003 and a total of 2600m of illegal fish nets were successfully removed or
destroyed. However, the illegal fishermen are still operating on the mudflat,
and up to 18 were seen on the mudflat on 29 April collecting mudskippers. Over
the coming days therefore, the AFCD Nature Wardens and police from the Lok
Ma Chau will use AFCD's hovercraft to go out to the mudflat to try and arrest
the these illegal fishermen.
Preliminary studies on the mudflat on the Shenzhen
side of Deep Bay in front of the Futian National Nature Reserve, has
shown that once the illegel nets are removed, then the number of migratory
waterbirds recorded using the mudflat wll increase.
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