Hong Kong people love to eat fresh seafood, but Hong Kong people continue to eat endangered seafood, which has attracted the attention of environmental groups.
What is eco-friendly seafood?
Whether it is wild-caught or farmed seafood, as long as it can meet our dietary needs without harming the future of the marine ecosystem, it is environmentally friendly seafood. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been promoting environmentally friendly seafood and has launched the "Seafood Selection Guide" to encourage the public and the industry to choose environmentally friendly seafood on the green and yellow lists and contribute to the conservation of marine resources.
According to some data, the per capita consumption of seafood in Hong Kong is 65.5 kilograms per year. Since there is almost no seafood to be fished in Hong Kong’s local waters, Hong Kong has become the world’s tenth largest seafood importer. Hong Kong people rely on imports for 90% of the seafood they eat.
However, environmental groups advocating the protection of marine life have discovered that 17 fish species listed as threatened with extinction are being sold in Hong Kong market stalls. The situation is quite serious. They call on Hong Kong citizens and the government to take urgent conservation actions to prevent the related fish species from being sold. Extinct.
The Hong Kong environmental group "Seafood Pickers" collaborated with the Asian environmental conservation research organization "ADMCF" to conduct a survey of coral fish in Hong Kong markets from December last year to June this year, selecting the Tai Po market and Tsuen Wan poplars that have been sampled in other similar studies. Uk Road Market Survey. It was found that a total of 17 species in the two markets were listed as threatened by IUCN, five of which were vulnerable, including the Eastern star spotted, rat spotted, mud spotted, dragon spotted and emperor's spotted, and two species, grouped grouper and Su Meigeng. It is at the endangered level, that is, its wild species may become extinct.
The survey found that 80% of live grouper species, including immature grouper, are still sold in Hong Kong markets. She Guohao, a researcher on the marine conservation project, said that overfishing is serious, but the only endangered species currently under control is the sage, which is obviously not enough to protect fish that are threatened with extinction.
Environmental groups call on consumers to know how to choose environmentally friendly seafood to protect the marine ecology. They plan to launch a guide in the first quarter of next year that will include the endangered species lists of the World Wildlife Fund and IUCN and introduce the characteristics of fish with pictures and texts to prevent Hong Kong consumers from being misled by wrong fish labels.
Environmental groups advocate the consumption of "eco-friendly seafood", that is, seafood that is caught or farmed in a way that causes minimal harm to the marine environment, and seafood whose target species are not threatened by overfishing. These seafood come from well-regulated fisheries and farming field.
What does marine conservation have to do with Hong Kong people?
Marine protected areas affect the health of our marine ecology and seafood supply, and are also closely related to recreation and tourism. However, only 2% of Hong Kong waters are currently designated as marine protected areas, and the level of conservation is seriously insufficient. What is a marine protected area?
What is the Seafood Selection Guide?
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has developed these guidelines to create a new trend in diet and make caring for the ocean a consumer responsibility.
The guidelines cover more than 70 types of seafood commonly found in local markets, supermarkets, refrigerated food stores, and restaurants, and divide them into three categories:
🔴 "Green - the first choice"
🟡 "Yellow - second choice" and
🟢 "Red - avoid"
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Hong Kong launched the first Seafood Choice Guide in 2007 and revised it in 2013. The Seafood Choice Guide is a tool for the public and stakeholders in the catering industry to identify the sustainability of seafood. The guide covers more than 70 common seafood species in Hong Kong, so that everyone can make informed decisions when buying and eating seafood. Experts from different WWF branches assess the sustainability of these more than 70 seafood species based on the wild population size, origin, production methods and fishery or fishery management of the species, and are reviewed by marine scientists. These seafood are divided into three categories: "Green - Recommended", "Yellow - Think carefully", and "Red - Avoid".
So that consumers can make the right choice. Marine scientists strictly evaluate the seafood species in the guide, whether they are wild-caught or farmed, according to the criteria jointly developed by WWF and other non-governmental organizations.
Reference
1.《餸您健康》常用海鮮選擇指引（建議、想清楚、避免）
2. 世界自然基金會 (WWF) 《海鮮選擇指引 2021》 下載
3. 認識街市的活珊瑚魚多一點 (2023) (Learn more about your wet market fishes, 生鮮市場の魚についてもっと学んでください)
