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Food Safety, Environmental Hygiene, Agriculture and Fisheries
Fisheries Industry
Fresh fish is one of Hong Kong's most important primary products. In 2013, fish caught and fish reared in ponds and floating cages at sea amounted to about 173,500 tonnes with a value of $2.5 billion.
Hong Kong's fishing fleet consists of some 3,980 vessels, manned by about 8,800 local fishermen and some 4,800 Mainland deckhands. These include larger vessels mainly operating in the South China Sea, and smaller vessels in local waters. The total catch in 2013 weighed 170,129 tonnes and had an estimated wholesale value of $2.34 billion. The industry provided some 45,000 tonnes of fish for local consumption during the year.
Licensed by the AFCD, 987 mariculturists operate in 26 designated fish culture zones, supplying the market in 2013 with about 1,005 tonnes of live marine fish valued at $94 million.
Freshwater and brackish water fish are reared in fish ponds located mainly in the northwestern part of the New Territories. In 2013, pond fish culture yielded some 2,187 tonnes of fish, or 3 per cent of local freshwater fish consumption.
The AFCD combats destructive fishing practices to ensure sustainable development of the fishing industry and to conserve fisheries resources in Hong Kong waters. Twelve cases of illegal fishing were successfully prosecuted in 2013.
The AFCD assists the industry in various ways to cope with the challenges it faces, including providing credit facilities for fishermen and owners of fish collectors to switch to sustainable fisheries, or to reduce fuel consumption or the carbon footprint of their operations, and for fish. farmers to improve their aquaculture business. Free training courses were also offered to fishermen during the annual fishing moratorium and at Chinese New Year in 2013. A $500 million Sustainable Fisheries Development Fund will be set up in 2014 to help fishermen adopt sustainable and high value-added methods of operation, and subsidise programmes and research to enhance the overall competitiveness of the industry.
Legislation to ban trawling in Hong Kong waters came into effect on 31 December 2012 as an integral part of efforts to restore Hong Kong's damaged seabed and depleted fisheries resources. One-off assistance was provided to affected trawler owners and their local deckhands. Owners of trawlers and fish collectors who are affected may also apply for a one-off, low interest loan to help them meet the challenges brought about by the trawling ban, and in 2013 the AFCD approved some 30 such applications.
In 2012, amendments to the Fisheries Protection Ordinance introduced a series of measures to control fishing activities in Hong Kong waters and conserve fisheries resources, including (a) setting up a registration system for local fishing vessels; (b) limiting new entrants to control the number of fishing vessels and fishing; (c) restricting the fishing activities of non-fishing vessels in Hong Kong waters and prohibiting fishing by non-local fishing vessels; and (d) designating fisheries protection areas. By December 2013, 3,012 certificates for registration of fishing vessels had been issued.
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