Alastor M. Coleby
Environment and Resources Management, School of Continuing Education, Hong Kong Baptist University, Shek Mun, New Territories Hong Kong SAR, 999077,China
Eric P. M. Grist
College of Engineering, Mathematics & Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4PY, United Kingdom
From data published by the Hong Kong SAR (HKSAR) government in their two sole fisheries surveys of 2006 and 2016/2017, the current authors produced regional maps using spatial interpolation to more accurately describe and estimate the geographic coverage of changes in fishing production in Hong Kong waters since the ground trawl ban of 2012 December 31st. These suggest the fishing industry has adapted to smaller craft, and that fishing production increased in several areas in the period after the ground trawl ban came into effect. In addition, the maps enable a smoother assessment to be made of the geospatial changes in fishing production which have occurred since the ground trawl ban and suggest a ‘workaround’ by fishermen. In particular, small fishing craft known as sampans are able to take advantage by being more suitable vessels for areas such as narrower or shallower bays. Marine plastics pollution is also a proxy indicator of these activities, as evidenced by discarded fishing gear that includes plastic nets, floats, and other fishing boat equipment.
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Copyright © 2023 Alastor M. Coleby, Eric P. M. Grist
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
