PRIMARY PRODUCTION AND MARKETING
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Fisheries Division. It is the aim of the Government to foster the orderly expansion of the marine and fresh water fisheries of the Colony to supply the needs of the local population and to improve the economic status of those engaged in fishing or fish farming; such questions as overfishing and the conservation of fisheries resources are also studied. In the immediate post-war years the emphasis was on the organization of the wholesale marketing of marine fish, which is described later in this Chapter under Market- ing. In 1952 the Fisheries Division of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Department was set up and in the same year the University of Hong Kong formed a Fisheries Research Unit. These bodies, together with the Co-operative Development Department, which controls the Fish Marketing Organization, are represented on the Fisheries Advisory Committee, at which discussions take place on matters of common interest.
The Fisheries Division, the Fisheries Research Unit and the Co- operative Development Department also participate in the activities of the Indo-Pacific Fisheries Council of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
The Fisheries Division is concerned with fisheries demonstration and extension work, the promotion of mechanization, the training of fishermen for certificates of competency as masters and engi- neers, operational investigations concerned with fishing methods, craft and fishing gear, the extension of pond fish culture and oyster farming in co-operation with the Fisheries Research Unit and the demonstration of approved fishing techniques.
Until recently the activities of the Fisheries Division were confined mainly to problems of the inshore waters, involving the mechanization of the smaller craft. Since 1958 policy has been broadened to include deep sea operational research in international waters. With this objective in mind, a second larger Fisheries Research Vessel, the 'Cape St. Mary', has been provided as a gift from H.M. Government and will operate under the control of the Fisheries Research Unit. The small steel Research Trawler 'Alister Hardy' has been transferred from the Fisheries Research Unit to the Fisheries Division for operational research and training in mid- waters. In addition, at the end of 1959, approval was given for