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Hei Kiu Au

Would you be willing to eat a fish you raised?
This was the question that faced 25 young Hongkongers one December afternoon on Lamma Island, who had gathered to share a simple meal of steamed fish that they had nurtured over nine months.
This “simple” meal defied a citywide norm. Dinner tables in Hong Kong will almost always include at least one classic seafood dish – from typhoon shelter crab to steamed grouper – but most of the time, that seafood did not come from the city’s waters.
This is the paradox of a city built on its harbour: its once-celebrated fishing industry is fading into a “sunset” trade, sustained by an ageing fleet compromised by warming seas and fiercer typhoons. And as veteran fishers retire, their children are more likely to steer pleasure yachts than family trawlers.
But on Lamma Island, a local charity’s new initiative is trying to change the tide.

The Aquaculture Youth Development Programme, launched in March 2025 by the non-profit organisation Life Jungle, selected 25 Hong Kong locals between the ages of 18 and 40 from diverse backgrounds and professions. Their task was to raise fish from juveniles to market size at the Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village by December.
Participants became part-time aquaculturists while juggling their careers or studies, travelling to Lamma at least twice a month to tend their stocks. Local fisherfolk were hired to maintain the operations in between.
Their mission was to master a sustainable fish farming method called Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) – a circular ecosystem where species support one another, turning waste into food.
In practice, this means cleaner water, less feed required, and multiple products from a single system, boosting both environmental and economic sustainability.
For instance, participants learned how pairing fish such as spotted scat with filter-feeding pearl oysters could create a cleaner, self-supporting unit. The oysters – themselves a profitable product – purify the water, benefiting the fish. Each group was given a budget to design and stock its own version of this symbiotic model.
The results, however, were sobering. The yield was not as big as they projected.
“Unusually warm waters and strong typhoons this year damaged the farms,” says Keith Lai, a programme mentor and author of Hong Kong Market Sea Fish.
“But we can’t change the climate,” he adds. “Experimentation like this is vital to find adaptable species and mitigate the effects. But science alone can’t fix a broken market.”
That market, he argues, is defined by a brutal economic squeeze. Hong Kong’s fishing industry is caught between the city’s focus on finance and the overwhelming scale of mainland Chinese aquaculture, which supplies most juvenile fish to the city and sets unbeatable prices.
“The biggest issue is that mainland China can farm fish on such a massive scale that we simply can’t compete in terms of quantity and price,” he says.
An ageing local workforce lacking young successors makes the sector even more vulnerable to these combined pressures.
“But as a city with origins in fishing, are we willing to let it just fall from grace?” Lai asks.
He believes not. “New blood can preserve part of the tradition and also add new inputs and experiment with new methods,” he says, noting the younger generation’s focus on environmental sustainability.

One of those methods could be the adoption of AI for monitoring fish health and automatic feeding, to reduce labour and optimise yield. This method is already being tested in a government mariculture demonstration farm on Tung Lung Chau, an island off the Clear Water Bay Peninsula in Hong Kong’s New Territories.
Learning from advanced models such as those used in Japan, where cultural demand has driven climate-resilient technology, could be another path forward.
Faced with this reality, competing on quantity and price is an upstream battle for Hong Kong’s fish farming industry. That is why the youth programme puts equal emphasis on branding, awarding a prize for the best business and marketing plan.
“Hong Kong’s future in seafood depends on building a unique identity around sustainability and quality, not scale,” says former actress Bernice Liu, an entrepreneur and the programme’s marketing consultant. “How these students tell their story is as important as the science itself.”

That lesson was put into practice by the marketing award winners, Fish Lab HK. They created an innovative social media hook, promising to “earn HK$1 million in 3 months” by running their own fish farm and uploading daily behind-the-scenes stories.
The campaign generated curiosity and drew the attention of a younger audience to the realities of local aquaculture.
The founder of Life Jungle, Wendy Chan, is the living link between this new vision and the industry’s past.
From the third generation of a fishing family, Chan is the second-generation owner of the Lamma Rainbow Seafood Restaurant. She grew up in Lamma’s Sok Kwu Wan village, where she watched its bustling fish farms and boats empty out.

“I have a first-hand account of seeing the [industry] waning,” she says. Her mission is to reverse that decline by making local fisheries relevant again.
Her background in chemistry and management shapes her dual approach. It allows her to bridge generations, convincing older fisherfolk to lend their farms for the programme while framing the future in terms a new audience can understand.
“Right now, in our restaurant, half our seafood is farmed and half is imported. We want to change the perception that local isn’t as good to show people that Hong Kong fish farms have the potential.”
The closing ceremony in December provided that proof. After months of battling typhoons and bouts of seasickness, the participants gathered to taste the harvest of their labour. Plates of traditional Cantonese-style steamed fish were shared among the group, their families and guests.

For many, it was their first time eating something they had raised themselves. That simple, shared meal showed that Hong Kong-grown seafood can be delicious and worth the effort.
For Chan, the real work is turning that proof into lasting change. “Education and awareness are the most important part,” she says. “By refining our narrative and identity, the industry can become more profitable, which will in turn invite more ‘new blood’ to revive it. That’s why this programme doesn’t end with its closing ceremony.”
Some participants from the programme have already been hired to lead public tours of the fish farms in multiple languages, sharing the science of sustainable aquaculture and showcasing Chan’s retired family boat at the Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village.
A second iteration of the Aquaculture Youth Development Programme depends on funding, but Life Jungle is already applying its adaptive model elsewhere, with a new funded project to farm abalone in more suitable waters near Hong Kong’s Cheung Chau island.

This forward-looking approach stems from Chan’s core vision for Hong Kong aquaculture: to rebuild a knowledge base and to redefine the value of what is produced in the city.
“I want people to know that Hong Kong seafood has incredible variety, and to understand our city’s own origin story through its fish,” she says.
“I hope Lamma Island will be the place where tourists and Hongkongers alike discover our fishing history.”


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Hong Kong aquaculture scheme nurtures young fish farmers to revive city’s seafood industry

A participant in the Aquaculture Youth Development Programme holds up pearl oysters at a fish farm on Lamma Island. The scheme challenged young people not only to raise their own seafood, but also to promote Hong Kong aquaculture through effective branding. Photo: Yeung Chi-fun

Fish farms on Lamma Island, where Hong Kong charity Life Jungle’s new initiative aims to forge change in local aquaculture. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

A participant in the Aquaculture Youth Development Programme holds pearl oysters that they helped farm, at Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

Aquaculture Youth Development Programme participants lead a fish farm tour at Lamma Fisherfolk’s Village. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

Wendy Chan is the founder of Life Jungle and the second-generation owner of Lamma Rainbow Seafood Restaurant in Sok Kwu Wan fishing village. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

The Aquaculture Youth Development Programme closing ceremony featured a lunch of fish that participants had helped farm. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

The interior of an old fishing boat owned by Wendy Chan’s family on Lamma Island. Photo: Hei-kiu Au

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Food & Drink

A Lamma Island-based programme teaching sustainable fish farming methods comes as the Hong Kong industry sees stiff mainland competition


A Lamma Island-based programme teaching sustainable fish farming methods comes as the Hong Kong industry sees stiff mainland competition.


Hong Kong aquaculture scheme nurtures young fish farmers to revive city’s seafood industry

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A Lamma Island-based programme teaching sustainable fish farming methods comes as the Hong Kong industry sees stiff mainland competition

A Lamma Island-based programme teaching sustainable fish farming methods comes as the Hong Kong industry sees stiff mainland competition