The Chairman of WWF Hong Kong, Mr Markus Shaw said inshore trawling was extremely destructive and had been banned in many South East Asian countries and Mainland China.

“The intensive trawling that goes on in Hong Kong causes extensive damage to the sea bed, the habitat that nurtures fish. It simply makes no sense.

“Designating all Hong Kong territorial waters as a Fisheries Protection Area would result in an outright ban on trawling and prevent our marine habitats from further degradation,” he said.

Mr Shaw added that Hong Kong’s marine environment and its resources are a public asset.

“The Government has a duty to the people of Hong Kong to protect the health and sustainability of Hong Kong’s fisheries and to conserve its marine environment.

“It should therefore take whatever measures are required to fulfill that duty, and should explain the necessity of its policies to the public and to the fishing community. Very urgent, resolute and wide ranging action is required if Hong Kong is to have any chance of restoring its marine habitats and the sustainability of its fisheries. Without fish, there can be no fishing industry,” he said.

Mr Shaw added that Government subsidises the fishing industry in many harmful ways.

“These subsidies simply exacerbate the unsustainability of the industry and these should cease.

“For example, the average size of fish caught by trawlers is a mere 10g and 12 out of Hong Kong’s 17 commercially important species are over exploited, while the remainders are fully exploited. Hong Kong also has the lowest biomass of fish per square metre of reef in the world.