HONG KONG - China's Hong Kong SAR and Guangdong province conducted a joint operation to combat illegal fishing activities and to conserve the marine resources within Hong Kong waters, including marine parks, a spokesman of Hong Kong's Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said Thursday.

The spokesman said that officers from the Marine Police and the AFCD took enforcement actions within Hong Kong waters while the Guangdong Provincial Marine and Fisheries Inspection Bureau took parallel enforcement actions in Mainland waters.The operation started on Wednesday and ended at 8 am this morning.

To facilitate the operation, the Marine Police and the AFCD deployed 25 police launches and 11 vessels respectively while the Guangdong Provincial Marine and Fisheries Inspection Bureau deployed 16 vessels and speedboats.

During the operation, officers from the Marine Police and the AFCD inspected 87 fishing vessels, among which one Mainland vessel was banned from entering Hong Kong waters. Three men and one woman from the Mainland, aged between 16 and 55, were arrested for suspected illegal immigration. The Guangdong Provincial Marine and Fisheries Inspection Bureau also inspected 132 fishing vessels in Mainland waters and 49 of the vessels were found to have violated the Mainland regulations.

The spokesman said that joint operations help combat illegal fishing activities and conserve marine resources, and said that similar joint operations would continue to be carried out from time to time in the future.