A sad ending

For those of you not in the know, one of the real sharks was trapped in a fisherman’s net in Hoi Ha Wan on August 30th. I read the news with great sadness as I feel I have almost formed a bond with these marvelous creatures by writing the tales of the celebrity sharks over the past few weeks. Of course fishermen catch and kill fish every day, however it doesn’t seem unreasonable to wish for a marine park to be a safe haven for marine life. Unfortunately in Hong Kong, even the tiny so-called marine protected area of the marine parks does not seem to be protected after all: fishermen still fish in the parks with nets and therefore the marine life cannot really flourish. Of course the fishermen claim it is their right as indigenous people to continue fishing and they have a point, but when interests such as these collide with the interests of the general public, negotiated solutions can be found. The question that needs to be asked here is why the government of Hong Kong has still not found a negotiated solution to this problem some ten years after the creation of the marine parks ordinance. At least we finally know the type of shark that has caused such disturbance, albeit to a small group of people. A blacktip reefshark is no man-eating monster endangering the public, particularly a juvenile of this size. Hoi Ha Wan Marine Park should have been the proud residence of a couple of real celebrity sharks, but with one down and little chance of the other surviving the ensnaring nets for much longer, it would seem that this is a forlorn hope.