Firstly I would like to congratulate Lew and his team at Mai Po for the construction of the new walkway to the hide.
This morning Neil and I decided to head out early to the new hide and do some digiscoping, arriving at the hide at 0730 we were in for the shock of our lives when we lifted the shutters - there were no birds to be seen, it soon became very obvious as to why. There were 7 illegal mudskipper collectors spread right across the bay (HK's protected Ramsar site).
I immediately called AFCD hotline 1823 as it was obviously too early for anyone to be in their office. This is where the first problem came up - Mobile phones do not work (or not all the time) in the hides, so a message was attempted to be left at the hotline.
I then tried Lok Ma Chau (LMC) report room who said it was Tin Shui Wai (TSW) I should be calling and then when TSW discovered that they couldn't walk out and arrest the mudskipper collectors, I was transfered back to LMC. At some time during all these calls I got a call from Marine Police but still no action was happening so Neil & I merrily took photos of the mudskipper men and women as nothing else was happening.
After what seemed like hours a team from LMC police station arrived at the hide, an inspector, sergeant and 3 PC's. Finally at 1000 hours a AFCD hoverboat was deployed to pickup a marine police officer from Tsim Bei Tsui and at 1030 it proceeded towards the mudskipper fishermen.
All this time the police officers in the hide were watching, through our scopes, the fishermen slowly heading back into the mangroves. This is where the second problem arose, the LMC police were unable to communicate with the marine police officer because they are on different radio channels and they tried to go through a communications centre but that was very slow in passing directions of the fishermens directions. It was then decided to try a direct link by using telephones, this involved the hoverboat stopping, the police office removing his helmet and the police officer in the hide standing on the narrow platform outside the hide - because of bad telephone reception.
To us inside the hide watching this through our scopes it was like watching a Laurel & Hardy movie. To cut a long story short, the mudskipper fishermen slowly walked into the mangroves and 1100 police abandoned the operation.
Any way a big thanks to Lew and his team for a great construction, both Neil and I had an enjoyable opening day.
PS: I would not advise anybody to go alone out to the hide as a mobile phone or camera may be worth more than a week's mudskipper collection
