Hong Kong people are hiring boats to catch their dinners in the central harbour—the once dead piece of water is now WRITHING with fish.
It’s a Chinese miracle writes Hong Kong journalist Nury Vittachi who’s lived on the waterfront for years, and says “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Nury continues: A decent-sized fish can easily cost the equivalent of a hundred US dollars—and some of shoals of fish in the harbour are so large they’re worth a fortune.
You can see how the surface of the water is affected by the sheer volume of fish below it.
OUT ON BOATS
Now, many residents are hiring proper fishing boats to go out on the water. Look at this scene — there’s one there, another one there, a third one over there and more over to the left.
For many years, waterfront dwellers like me would only see the occasional old rowing boat with one or two people with rods.
But it’s very different now. Public fishing boats in the harbour are suddenly commonplace.
Or you can just fish from the promenade. Entire schools of fish can be seen just under the surface. And sometimes they leap right out.
WATER FILLED WITH HUGE FISH
Check the attached video out. I walked down to North Point and there was this huge shoal of large fish. You can imagine the value of this lot.
This is remarkable given that the harbour used to be famously filthy. In the past, people who fell into the water were taken away for medical check-ups.
I filmed this part in the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, which used to be even dirtier than the rest of the harbour. Now look at it!
THE STATISTICS
In 1997, when Hong Kong passed to Chinese sovereignty, only 26 of Hong Kong’s 41 beaches met cleanliness targets.
By 2010, all 41 passed the test.
How did the Chinese manage to clean the harbour? At the turn of the century, engineers dug the world’s deepest sewage tunnels, as deep as a 50-storey building.
The tunnel transfers waste water from Hong Kong island and Kowloon to a hi-tech treatment plant on Stonecutters Island for disinfection.
To be scrupulously fair, the project was built this century but some of the planning started in the British colonial era.
The clean water makes a very nice result for human beings and for the fish – except of course the ones which are caught for dinner. Bon appetit!
Source: Fridayeveryday, 25 September 2026.
