MIDDLEBURGH

MIDDLEBURGH RECYCLES

In December 2004 my blog posts were frankly - absolute rubbish..and arguably continued so for a LONG time . To give context, I niavely followed the prevelent style of others on Blogger and Wordpress. Facebook (launched in February) was gaining traction; Bebo and Myspace were hot but neither attracted me, and Twitter was yet to be launched (July 2006). My initial (and experimental) posts were more suited to a Twitpic (launched in 2008 ) or (nstagram.(October 2010) and were by any standard ... spectaularly vacuous in content.

One of my first posts was about the Aberdeen Fishing Fleet. At that time a lot of boats are "laid up" due to high fuel costs rather than quota restrictions. I commented that during a typhoon or public holday such as Chinese New Year the harbour gets so crowded that you can almost walk across the boats decks from Ap Lei Chau to Aberdeen. That was it ..... apart from attaching a naff photo.

There was no mention of fact that I once lived and worked in Grimsby, UK which had been the largest fishing port in the world and which still has a substantial fish market. Nor that I still love living by a working harbour and I go down to watch the boats most weekends. More importantly, there was nothing of substance about the local Fishing Industry, an embarrassment which I really must address.

According to the
AFCD, last year (2011) Hong Kong produced 170,720 tonnes of fish product, worth HK$2, 358 million. There were 4,000 local fishing vessels manned by 8, 500 fishermen. The principle method of fishing was trawling followed by long-lining, gill-netting and purse-seining. However in order to protect local fish stocks and the ecosystem, from 31 December 2012, trawling (including pair, stern, shrimp and hang trawling) will be banned in Hong Kong waters. The Government is introducing a one-off assistance scheme of ex-gratia payments to affected trawler owners; buying out of affected inshore trawlers if voluntarily surrendered, one-off assistance to affected local deckhands and a special training programme to reskill affected trawler fishermen and local deckhands for other sustainable fishing operations such as mariculture and recreational fishing .

No doubt this will adversely impact the number of boats in my local harbour, On the upside is the local commitment to sustainable fishing, In September we hosted the 10th International Seafood Summit which was big on sustainability, and that iconic dish traditionally found at Chinese weddings ie Sharks Fin Soup, is not only off the menu but
Cathay Pacific refuse to ship Fins in their cargo.planes!! When asked a spokesman said "we don't wont na fin to do wiv 'em", (how Eco friendly!! ) Good news for local sharks seen frolicking off of Lamma this summer though!!

Just to make it clear - This post mentions

• Aberdeen
  
• Grimsby
  
• Ap lei Chau
  
• Lamma
  

but not MIDDLEBURGH, NY, 12122, U.S.A

Labels: MIDDLEBURGH

Posted at 11/14/2012 10:51:00 pm by David Middleburgh   Permalink

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