Issn 1198-6727 Rebuilding Hong Kong's Marine Fisheries: an Evaluation of Management Options

Most experts agree that many fisheries around the world are in crisis. Indeed, many would agree that something needs to be done to fix this problem. Unfortunately, however, doing something entails initial costs. In most cases fishing will have to be reduced significantly in the short term. And, many will ask, what do we do with our fishers while we wait for the fish populations to rebuild? This study addresses this question in the case of Hong Kong by conducting a survey of Hong Kong’s fishers, as we believe that asking fishers is a useful approach to begin to find solutions to fisheries problems. The survey indicated that 54% of interviewed fishers were willing to switch jobs or go live on shore, with the remaining 46% saying that they would not consider it. This result implies that there is a good potential for well-designed alternative livelihood schemes to succeed. Also, dive and recreational shop operators were generally receptive to hiring fishers as new employees. The most frequent reason given for not hiring was that fishers did not have the required skills. Therefore, any well-designed alternative livelihoods scheme will have to address how to improve the skills among fishers. Given the concern expressed by fishers that the current alternative livelihood options in the marine sector (passenger/leisure boat operator, recreational raft fishing, deep sea tuna fishing) are not able to provide a sufficient number of jobs, an alternative livelihoods scheme will also have to look outside the marine sector.