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Following is a question by the Hon Kam Nai-wai and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (March 3):
Question:
In recent years, quite a number of members of the public have engaged in angling at the waterfronts of the Victoria Harbour. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether there is legislation in place to regulate the angling activities at the waterfronts of the Victoria Harbour; if so, of the details;
(b) whether it knows the number of people engaged in angling at the waterfronts of the Victoria Harbour in the past three years;
(c) whether it knows if the catches of angling by members of the public at the waterfronts of the Victoria Harbour are suitable for consumption, and whether it has assessed if the catches of angling at these waterfronts will be suitable for consumption upon completion of the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme Stage 2A in around 2014; and
(d) given that a number of waterfront promenades along the Victoria Harbour will be open for use in the next few years, whether the Government has considered making these promenades available for the angling activities of members of the public?
Reply:
President,
(a) Currently, leisure angling activities could be carried out in most waters in Hong Kong. Angling activities are only regulated in special zones of ecologically sensitive waters, including marine reserves, marine parks, marine fish culture zones and reservoirs to ensure the fisheries resources and marine ecosystem in these waters are protected. As angling activities at the waterfronts of the Victoria Harbour will not impose too much pressure on the fisheries resources, and they will not damage the seabed under normal circumstances, the Administration does not plan to regulate leisure angling activities at the waterfronts of the Victoria Harbour.
(b) The Administration does not have statistics on the number of people engaged in angling at the waterfronts of the Victoria Harbour in the past three years.
(c) Under the food surveillance programme of the Centre for Food Safety, samples of food items (including capture marine products) are taken at different sales levels in the market for testing, and no data is available on the catches of angling by members of the public at the waterfronts of the Victoria Harbour.
According to the Environmental Protection Department, the water quality of the Victoria Harbour has improved considerably since the completion of Stage 1 of the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme (HATS) in 2001. The commissioning of HATS Stage 2A is anticipated to bring further improvement to the harbour water quality by further increasing the overall levels of dissolved oxygen in the waters around the Victoria Harbour by 5%, and further reducing the overall levels of major pollutants such as inorganic nitrogen, ammonia, phosphorus and E. coli by about 5%, 10%, 8% and 90% respectively. Nevertheless, given the dense population on both sides of the Victoria Harbour, the water quality near the waterfronts may continue to be affected by surface run-offs and other contamination from urban areas from time to time. From the food safety angle, the Administration does not encourage members of the public to consume fish angled at the waterfronts of the Victoria Harbour.
(d) A number of waterfront promenades along the Victoria Harbour will be open for use in the next few years, and the Administration will consider making them available for angling by members of the public.
Ends/Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Issued at HKT 12:40
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