End of Covid restrictions in Hong Kong ignites trade in illegally caught seafood

The end of Covid restrictions across China have spurred a recovery in consumption of smuggled seafood in Hong Kong.

Demand for exotic and endangered fish species collapsed in Hong Kong during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, but has returned following the abrupt move by the Chinese government in December 2022 to end its restrictive travel and trading policies designed to curb the spread of the virus.

Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson, a professor at the Swire Institute of Marine Science at the University of Hong Kong, said the city’s authorities have done little to hinder the rekindling of illegal seafood trading following the two-year lull. Sadovy said there has been an increase of contraband supply by air, including an uptick in imports of endangered humphead wrasse, a delicacy much sought-after by diners at high-end restaurants in Hong Kong and mainland China. The fish, also known as Napolean wrasse, require a CITES permit to be conducted legally.

“I am guessing that the airport customs may not be inspecting live fish imports and hence not noticing imports of humphead wrasse, but they are evident in a number of shops around the city. Usually the same shops each time,” she said.

Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) had signed on to use a facial recognition app, called “Saving Face,” designed to facilitate tracking of illegal trading in endangered reef fish into the city. However, despite having an allocated budget to integrate the facial recognition app into its IT systems, the AFCD has not yet done so, Sadovy said. Adaptation of the app for use in identifying illegal seafood is “progressing far too slowly,” Sadovy told SeafoodSource.

“I would like to see the technology used as soon as possible as we are seeing a steady trickle of humphead wrasse entering Hong Kong in all the main seafood centers. All [of it] must be illegal, since there have been no legal imports for several years,” she said. “The work should have begun by the end of 2022 and [if that had happened], the upgrading of the app-related programs, for example accuracy of facial recognition, would be much-improved. The database backend will be adapted to their needs.”

Developed by Sadovy and Loby Hau together with a team of technical experts at Corvidae, a company that originated as a start-up at the University of Hong Kong, the app is also designed to allow members of the public to track sales of humphead wrasse in retail outlets. Beyond that, the facial recognition app has huge potential for use in tracking other illegal seafood trading, Sadovy said.

“Our aim is not only for AFCD to use this for humphead wrasse. The model format we are building will be useable for a range of species to assist in enforcement and research using individual animal identification,” she said. “I do not know why AFCD is so slow on this. They have for a long while said they are committed to the use of facial recognition. They made a commitment but are not following up on it for the moment.”

AFCD did not respond to a request from SeafoodSource for comment on the pace of its adoption of the new technology.

Photo courtesy of Yvonne Sadovy de Mitcheson/University of Hong Kong