A Hong Kong fisherman hauls in a large net to reveal a tiny catch the size of a football from a fishing vessel in Hong Kong's coastal waters, Sunday 6 November 2005, Hong Kong.
Paying the mortgage on this kind of HK$1,300,000.00 vessel is getting harder for Hong Kong fishermen as interest rates rise, and fish stocks fall. (The rises and falls in the price of all kind of boats in the territory closely mirror price trends in the broader property market). Hong Kong's fishing community have been complaining of ever-declining fish stocks as over-fishing through bottom-trawling and toxic-dumping in the region continues unabated. Apart from a few fully grown crabs and prawns which the fishermen can sell at the Aberdeen Wholesale Fish Market, most of the catch that day consisted of small bits of broken hard coral, juvenile fish, juvenile crabs, different unidentifiable crustaceans and shellfish as well as various bits of rubbish such as an old rubber boot, an empty can of beer, an empty paint pot, bits of polythene sheeting and lots of old tangled fishing nets.