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We have also in addition advised affected fishermen of opportunities available to them for retraining if they wish to peruse fishing in more distant waters or a livelihood outside the fishing industry. Such training can be arranged by the Agriculture and Fisheries Department and the Labour Department.
Mr President, we have taken these steps because we believe it is vitally important to continue to support and secure for the future the contribution of our inshore fishing industry to the economy and food supply of Hong Kong. During the debate, I have listened to a number of concerns of Members about the effectiveness of these measures and I would now like to deal with a few points raised.
First, some Members have suggested that disturbance to fishing operations from dredging and dumping ground occurs beyond the boundary of the gazetted works area and that the calculation of ex-gratia allowances should take this into account. As Members are aware, environmental impact assessments are a standard requirement for major development projects; these take into account the need for mitigation of effects outside the project boundary and contractors must adhere to the stipulated requirements. To address Members' concern, the Director of Agriculture and Fisheries will arrange for a more scientific study of the disturbance to fishing grounds adjacent to gazetted works areas.
A number of Members have said that the 1989 to 1991 fishing port survey is no longer an appropriate basis for calculating the ex-gratia allowances. Let me just talk a little bit about that survey.
The survey of the fishing operations in local waters was a thorough and provided a benchmark against which to measure the impact on port and airport development works on inshore fisheries.
The question that is before me is whether during that survey of asking individual vessel operators, and we asked some 3,000 fishing vessels. The question is whether the data provided them at that time for whatever reason was inaccurate or suppressed. Now that survey was suppose to establish the pattern of operations and the value of fish catches in different areas. We used that data given to us by the fishermen to form a detail database from which to assess claims. As I have said. I now begin to ask the question as to whether in fact some of the data supplied at the time was for whatever reason, either inaccurate or suppressed.
While the survey was completed in 1991, the notional values of three years' catch from the areas in question have been reflected in actual payments by updating them in line with current fish prices. In other words, actual payments are suppose to be kept up-to-date and they were not pegged, and they are not pegged to 1991 prices.