610 Fish Thrown out at Honokohau

[Uwrasse]

"If our fish die, we don't get paid." That's the (unfortunate) view of the aquarium trade. The leading aquarium guru on Kona, Bob Fenner, estimates that 99% of Hawaii reef fish taken die within a year. THAT'S AFTER THE COLLECTORS GET PAID. So what? That kill doesn't count?

Fenner profiles Hawaii reef fish as "the livestock" necessary to drive hard goods sales--tanks, stands, lights and those cute little plastic skeleton that blow bubbles.

rbgmatt--do you still believe in NO BAG LIMITS for the aquarium trade??!!

You would serve Hawaii reefs best by finding a different livelihood.

 

[kanonfodr]

rbgmatt--do you still believe in NO BAG LIMITS for the aquarium trade??!!

You would serve Hawaii reefs best by finding a different livelihood.

And we would all serve Hawaii reefs best by not diving, or snorkling, or even getting in the water. Be careful with the attacks.

Peace,
Greg

 

[octodiver]

Snorkeling, diving and getting in the water does no harm. Hawaii's most abundant, diverse and healthy reefs are the ones where collecting and fishing are prohibited AND the highest numbers of snorkelers and divers go. See UH and HCRI CRAMP data; see Holland and Meyer study showing that snorkeling and diving are not harming Hawaii's marine protected areas; see Mark Vermeij's report that high recreation levels at Molokini are not inconsistent with high coral cover.

 

[Uwrasse]

And we would all serve Hawaii reefs best by not diving, or snorkling, or even getting in the water. Be careful with the attacks.

Peace,
Greg

Attack is in the eye of the beholder. The aquarium trade attacks Hawaii reefs with no limits on their catch, no limits on the number of catchers and no constraints on endemic or rare species. The knee-jerk apologists & defenders of this carte blanche extraction jump quickly to the damage done by non-extractive recreation. The comparison simply holds no water. Snorkelers & divers will damage what they touch, & some reefs should be off limits to all, but comparing coral touching to aquarium collecting is like comparing an inadvertent bump to homicide. Your more advanced reef management countries allow no reef extraction. Hawaii's reefs are in very rapid decline, most significantly from algae suffocation. 60% of the aquarium catch is herbivore. Now who's attacking whom?

 

[kanonfodr]

Attack is in the eye of the beholder. The aquarium trade attacks Hawaii reefs with no limits on their catch, no limits on the number of catchers and no constraints on endemic or rare species. The knee-jerk apologists & defenders of this carte blanche extraction jump quickly to the damage done by non-extractive recreation. The comparison simply holds no water. Snorkelers & divers will damage what they touch, & some reefs should be off limits to all, but comparing coral touching to aquarium collecting is like comparing an inadvertent bump to homicide. Your more advanced reef management countries allow no reef extraction. Hawaii's reefs are in very rapid decline, most significantly from algae suffocation. 60% of the aquarium catch is herbivore. Now who's attacking whom?

Great, then let's lobby the state legislature to put a quota on reef takes. Expose the guys going out there and pounding the reef for everything Mother Nature has put in the ocean. Find the dude who trashed 610 fish and turn his face inside out. I'm all for action since I love the abundance of reef fish in Hawaii and I will report anything that looks wrong if I can't take action myself.

In the meantime, keep the personal attacks off SB because they are ultimately pointless.

Peace,
Greg

 

[cuddlefish]

Snorkeling, diving and getting in the water does no harm.

Snorkeling and diving, if done responsibly, are low impact...but certainly not zero impact. Unfortunately, divers and snorkelers (and fisherman, boaters, etc), do sometimes negatively affect the marine environment. I do feel that removing reef fish from the environment is not positive in any way. Though I believe that people should have the right to carry on in their profession in a responsible way.

 

[S0ckm0nk3y]

Hey folks,

I'm officially as bummed out by this thread as I was by seeing photos of all the dead fishies on the asphalt.

Before things get any more heated up I would urge everyone to take a deep breath and try to practice as much aloha as they can muster.

-Eric

 

[octodiver]

Aloha to the collectors is needed because they will need to find other sources of work, hopefully someday soon. Of course, most of them will just switch to fishing for food, but those resources are limited to.

One of the many reasons this industry must be stopped is it's a disposable pet industry fueled by our reef animals. It is an unethical and harmful trade. If a dog could live for 40 years in the wild, like yellow tangs, but only lived for a year in people's backyards because they are so difficult to care for in captivity, would you stand for it?

If you want to keep ethics out of it (even though the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force says that the ethical concerns with this trade are a MAJOR issue), think about this:

There are less than 100 guys statewide engaged in the collection, and they, along with State resource managers, are responsible for the demise of these species. Outside Kona's protected areas, yellow tang populations are just 20% of what they are in the no-take areas. Who among you thinks that an 80% decline in the natural balance of a fish once so plentiful is good for Hawaii's reefs?

Here's a report from the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force, where they note, among other startling facts, that Hawaii's reefs are being severely overfished by the collectors, and some are down by 97%:

View attachment Coral Trade Information Sheet.pdf

 

[friscuba]

A

Here's a report from the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force, where they note, among other startling facts, that Hawaii's reefs are being severely overfished by the collectors, and some are down by 97%:

View attachment 71437

It would be nice to reference some current material that's been done. That reference said 14-97%, it was in a 2002 report, it wouldn't surprise me if the report is based on numbers taken in earlier years possibly just after the marine preserves were actually established in 2000, it doesn't mention the baseline year they used as a comparison to achieve those numbers.

I know a couple of people involved in the actual reef counts the last several years, and they say the numbers the last several years are very encouraging and show that the FRAs are working outside of their boundaries. Unfortunately this is all ancecdotal, based on their say-so. I've tried looking up reports on the effectiveness of the FRA system, and they're hard to find. I found a 2009 report on Ecological management on the Hawaiian Island chain http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/tissot/Tissot_Walsh_Hixon_2009.pdf (page 269) that mentioned at the end of the 5 year FRA study (back in 2005/2006) that the FRAs were "particularly effective" in increasing yellow tang numbers and overall populations of yellow tang in West Hawaii had jumped 49% since 2000, it didn't get into specifics on numbers and locations. Unfortunately they do a poor job of disseminating information. It would be nice if current numbers can be used when making claims of any type.

I do agree with the right for people to oppose fish collection on an ethical basis, but like others pointed out earlier, anyone entering the reef system is likely to have some kind of effect... I looked up a Holland /Meyer study, think it might be the one mentioned earlier, it did mention adverse effects by recreational users, also that the bulk of damage they witnessed was caused by a minority of the users. We're all a part of this.

 

[octodiver]

The Holland & Meyer study reported that out of the 250+ snorkelers and divers they followed, only 7 made contact with coral in a way that left any kind of visible mark. The rest of the substrate contacts were with sand, rock or left no mark. You just cannot compare aquarium collecting to divers incidental coral touching or damage. Most divers do everything possible to avoid touching the coral, and coral is growing, thriving and spreading in even the areas with the most traffic in the state, like Molokini - all because of moorings. Its anchors/chains from these industries that harm the environment - not the divers, snorkelers themselves. Comparing the relatively minor damage of these people to that to the damage caused by mass extraction of fishes and invertebrates essential to coral reef health is like saying that trimming the trees in your yard contributes to global warming.

Look up Williams, Walsh, et. al. 2009 in Biological Conservation to see that yellow tangs are now 5 times more abundant in the closed areas. In the open areas they remain at 20% of the protected areas - the same basic rate as they were before the protected areas were set up.
These same researchers and managers reported to the West Hawaii Fisheries Council that blue lined butterflyfishes, teardrop butterflyfishes are ~99% gone along with other species heavily collected and found abundantly in the 1970's. As you may know, the blue lined butterflyfish is one of the rarest fish in the world - found only in Hawaii with no known relatives elsewhere. They know this yet did not put bag limits on these species.

Bag limits and area closures should only be implemented for species that are able to regularly attain or exceed their normal lifespans - as is the case for all other captive animals we hold in zoos or call pets. Yellow tang studies show that the average age of yellow tangs at Honaunau is 11 years old and there are many 20 and 30 year olds with some over 40.