Anglers reap bounty after storm ravages fish farms in Guangdong

Hundreds of thousands of yellow pomfret swam to Hong Kong waters after tropical cyclone Chaba destroyed a number of fish farms in Guangdong.

Many Hong Kong anglers reaped a harvest, but the seafood sector said it is worried the city will face a seafood supply shortage in the near future.

The tropical cyclone hit south China earlier this month. Many fish farms in Yangjiang, Guangdong, were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of fish escaped to the sea.

One angler, named Ho, said he and his friends went fishing twice in the past two weeks and saw a huge number of yellow pomfret in Hong Kong waters.

But Ho said they could only either eat their catch or give them to friends for free as it is illegal to sell unless they have a license.

Another man named Ng said each angler caught dozens of fish in one trip so many have joined fishing groups.

Some groups recruited members on Facebook and required them to pay at least HK$600 each to join.

Another angler said he had a "magical" experience after catching 22 pomfret in one location as he could only bag one before.

Others said there was "an unusual number" of fish and they "harvested boatloads."

Hong Kong Chamber of Seafood Merchants chairman Li Choi-wah said many fishermen have caught more than 100 catties of fish recently, adding the yellow pomfret came from farms in Yangjiang and Huizhou in Guangdong.

But he said mainland fish farmers suffered from huge losses as many of them borrowed from banks to invest in equipment.

"But now their farms had been destroyed and their catch gone," Li said.

"Each farmer is suffering from a loss of more than 10 million yuan [HK$11.65 million] and the entire industry in Guangdong has lost 800 million yuan to 1 billion yuan. Those farmers have gone bankrupt."

As for the bumper harvest seen by Hong Kong anglers, Li said it will not affect the sale of fish in the market. But there will be a shortage in seafood supply in the near future, he said.

"The fish supply from the mainland will definitely decrease and I'm not sure whether the price of fish will go up in the future," he said.

According to mainland reports, many of the fish cages sank, got blown away or were destroyed by Chaba.

"There were 160,000 to 170,000 catties of yellow pomfret in each cage but now only 3,000 catties could be salvaged," one of the farmers surnamed told the media.

Liang said 20 of his fish cages were destroyed by the tropical cyclone and he is facing a loss of more than 50 million yuan. Even if farmers managed to bring the cages back, the fish inside them were injured and would gradually die, he added.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com