Could the glorious evenings of feasting on seafood as the sun sets over a beach soon fade into the past? Will seafood lovers face global shortages and steep price hikes for their favorite tasty delights?

Fish stocks and marine habitat in all oceans have declined, even collapsed. Pollution, global warming and destructive fishing techniques continue to inflict deadly damage. Even fish farms can’t pick up the slack without big changes and more viable strategies.

That’s according to marine biologist Dr Thomas J. Goreau, president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, who on December 6th visited Hong Kong for the first time. After a brief stay, he left for the Philippines and then Thailand.

“The fish market in Hong Kong contributes to fisheries-habitat destruction around the world,” said Dr Goreau, nudging aside a coffee cup and gesturing with both hands. He spoke to a reporter while seated alfresco near the water’s edge at Lamma Island’s New Holiday Mood Restaurant. Nearby diners may have noticed his deformed left hand, partly amputated by an aggressive barracuda in Mexican waters two years ago.

“I’d like to see Hong Kong become part of the solution, supported by sustainable fisheries, instead of such a big part of the problem,” he said.

Raised mainly in Jamaica, Dr Goreau lives in Cambridge, Massachussetts, and travels to Alliance projects overseas. Starting in the 1940s, his father, another marine biologist, pioneered “diving as a research tool”. Previous studies always used samples lifted to the surface.

“I grew up swimming in a reef,” Dr Goreau said. “While my father dived, I swam on the surface.”

Never in living memory has the fishing industry’s future looked grimer than now. “Wild stocks are dying so the future lies in mariculture,” Dr Goreau said. But most fish farms can’t survive global warming, water pollution and aquatic diseases without strategic and structural changes.

Rather than relying on water enclosures to feed and nurture a single species, which pollutes the vicinity and allows diseases to flourish, the farmers should construct habitat so that many fish thrive, Dr Goreau said. “The key to fisheries management rests in habitat restoration.”

The Global Coral Reef Alliance, a 16-year-old network of volunteers dedicated to saving and restoring coral reefs, suggests a “biorock process” invented by a German architect named Wolf Hilbertz that sends measured doses of electricity through metal-rod frames underwater. Within hours, mineral accretion begins. Hydrogen bubbles appear, then rust converts back to iron and limestone begins to coat the frames, creating a foundation for coral to prosper. Once in place, the coral grows up to five times faster than normal and can endure unhealthy water or unusual temperature variations.

The Alliance has coral-restoration projects in Maldives, Seychelles, Thailand, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Panama and elsewhere.

“Fish appreciate three-dimensional structures full of holes,” Dr Goreau said. “If we build the architecture right, they move right in. They come in incredible numbers because what we do creates fish habitat. We can make structures with any number of layers and lots of hiding places to create habitats with higher population-holding capacities than even natural ones. This works so remarkably well that nobody believes us unless they see it for themselves in their own waters. We’re growing whole eco-systems, very diverse ones, by adding nothing but steel bars and energy.”

Fish farms need a similar approach, he said, especially those in or near Hong Kong, where the high human population, turbidity, a mad rush to develop, plenty of dredging and toxins from the Pearl River Delta all create “an extreme case”.

“What we’re trying to do, notably in Indonesia and the Philippines, is to place our technology in the hands of fishermen and fish farmers. If applied on a big enough scale, it’ll change the future of fisheries and lead to a different form of mariculture.

“There’s no future in traditional fishing and fish farming. We need new methods and ideas. But governments and funding agencies don’t get it yet.”

Is Dr Goreau discouraged that pollution persists, marine life dies and his advice tends to be ignored? “We’re a bit of a lone voice in the wilderness,” he said.

“All the problems would be solvable, if people had the will to put their money in the right places,” he said. “I’m encouraged that solutions exist, but not that so many bone-headed idiots do exactly the wrong things in every regard. It’s hard to be optimistic, except to know that what needs doing could be done.”

For more information: www.globalcoral.org

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Thomas Goreau takes stock of captive creatures
at a seafood restaurant in Hong Kong.


Gesturing dramatically, Dr Goreau makes a point.
He lost part of his left hand in a barracuda attack.


In a restaurant fish tank, lobsters await diners.


Coral develops on a biorock reef in Bali, Indonesia.
(Global Coral Reef Alliance photo / James Cervino)