A report published in Marine Policy has found that the origin of nearly half of live tropical fish sold for human consumption in Hong Kong markets, the world’s largest market for the trade, is undocumented.
Authored by a group of researchers at the Swire Institute of Marine Science at the University of Hong Kong, “Temporal Trends of Key Commercial Species Under Live Reef Food Fish Trade In Hong Kong” found that over the past decade, Hong Kong's trade of live tropical fish for human consumption – mainly centered on species like groupers, wrasses, and snappers – totaled 200,000 metric tons and was worth over USD 2 billion (EUR 1.8 billion).
The fish are mainly imported from Indonesia, the Philippines, and other Southeast Asian nations, with a large percentage of the fish then reexported to Macau and mainland China, where Hong Kong enjoys zero-tariff status – a practice the report said “contributes to over-exploitation of tropical fish.”
“Endangered species like humphead wrasse [Cheilinus undulatus] are in Hong Kong markets but are missing from trade data due to underreporting from fishing vessel declarations and incomprehensive surveys from the local [Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species] management authority, leading to over 50 percent import data gaps in half the live reef food fish species,” the report said. “Also, broad and nonspecific trading codes are used, lacking key information on specific species, such as common wet market groupers.”
A CITES certificate is required for trade in humphead wrasse, an endangered species prized as a delicacy in Cantonese cuisine, but the report found enforcement is spotty.
According to Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson, a professor at the Swire Marine Institute who led development of a facial recognition app called Saving Face to help Hong Kong authorities track reef fish in the tanks of local markets, trade of contraband live reef fish rebounded sharply after Covid-19 restrictions, including on trade, were lifted.
“I am guessing that the airport customs may not be inspecting live fish imports and, hence, not noticing [undocumented] imports, but they are evident in a number of shops around the city – usually the same shops each time,” she told SeafoodSource at the time.
