Marine Fish For Sale

[JustinW]

I also currently have a reef in my home, the earlier post is wrong. THe use of cyanide is not increasing, that was a popular method in the 1960's but is not longer very popular because it costs the collectors too much money (90% kill rate) and they can't sell fish that are dead. The habits are not as bad as some on this board would exaggerate it to be. CHeck out www.thelogicalreef.com www.garf.org and www.orafarm.com Captive bred specimens are more highly desireable in the trade due to them being less sensitive to shifts in water quality, more likely to take aquarium fare offered and less likely to die or introduce wild fish diseases. What you should be more concerned about than the capture of fish is the collection of "live rock" this is actual rock removed from the reef and sold to the US markets. While they say all the rock is already broken loose off of the reef, you can never be sure. On the other hand this is a good way for poor people in these countries to make a living, and we all want to be compassionate, before the live rock was sold to aquarium dealers, it was used on the islands to build walls out of, hey at least now they can feed themselves.

 

[caymaniac]

While I was in Hawaii last summer,(the Big Island), I had a chance to talk to some locals about the number of fish on Hawaii's reefs. I was assured that in the last 19 years the fish population around Hawaii has declined at an alarming rate because of the factor that fish collection is very good business. Since my wife and I had recently been diving off NE. Australia we were shocked at how few fish were on Hawaiian reefs.
Caymaniac

 

[Hank49]

.

From what I understand, for every 1 fish that reached the aquarium alive, around 4 died in the process. What a waste. Do spread the message around once again.

I read somewhere that it's more like 1 of 15 reach the end buyer. The Philippines supplied 70% of aquarium fishes a few years back and they're caught by kids chasing them into nets. The live tanks used on boats and the shore before shipping to Manila and off to the US or where ever are not exactly state of the art technology. And the worst is that most of the really beautiful fish, like Moorish Idols and butterfly fish, are really hard to keep alive. So even if you buy one it's likely to die within a mointh or less.

 

[LioKai]

I also currently have a reef in my home, the earlier post is wrong. THe use of cyanide is not increasing, that was a popular method in the 1960's but is not longer very popular because it costs the collectors too much money. The habits are not as bad as some on this board would exaggerate it to be. What you should be more concerned about than the capture of fish is the collection of "live rock" this is actual rock removed from the reef and sold to the US markets. While they say all the rock is already broken loose off of the reef, you can never be sure. On the other hand this is a good way for poor people in these countries to make a living, and we all want to be compassionate, before the live rock was sold to aquarium dealers, it was used on the islands to build walls out of, hey at least now they can feed themselves.

I'm not sure where you are getting your info from, but it sure isn't first hand info.

"Feeding themselves" is about the most assinine excuse I have heard. Teach them how to cultivate so that their childrens children can eat too. BTW, "live rock" is STILL being used to build houses.

A part-time crew member of ours is a marine biologist, and he was in Bali and a few other islands last year. The use of explosives could be heard for removing "live rock" all day long every day.

As for closer to home, here in Hawaii:
The south end of the island (Big Island) is getting collected to such of a degree that diving there is becoming about as enjoyable as pool diving.

I shoot video of aquatic behaviors. Video that I shot from 10 years ago showed dozens of leaf fish and lionfish, flame angels on every dive, etc. The last few lion fish in non-protected dive sites WERE at a dive site called "Auau". As of January 2004 they were gone. ALL OF THEM.

In the area of the Kona side where fish collecting is illegal (30% of the Kona coast for the last 6 years), the return of these collected animals is incredibly slow. After 6 years of protection most of the "collected" species are now only beginning to return, many of these species numbers are still in single digits.

We are running dive charters 7 days a week, and for the last 22 years we have been compiling sightings of different species and specific animals at each dive site. The first few years were on paper, the last 18 years are on computer. This compiled list does not lie. The numbers are down, way down.

I attended a meeting of the rules of the FRA (Fish replenishment areas) and I was happy to see a few fish collectors in attendance. One collector asked the same question over and over, "how much is the fine if I get caught doing this". I felt sick to my stomach each time that he asked that question. I wish the answer would be that his collectors license would be revoked the first time that he was caught.

There is proof that protection works. The FRA's have an increased population of everything. But to win a bloodless war the battle is long.

Matthew J D'Avella
Dive Makai Charters
Kona Hawaii

 

[Hank49]

A part-time crew member of ours is a marine biologist, and he was in Bali and a few other islands last year. The use of explosives could be heard for removing "live rock" all day long every day.

ii

If Bali is like the Philippines the dynamite is used to stun/kill fish and gather them. It devastates reefs. Bad, bad, bad.

 

[zboss]

one more note:
There is a seahorse farm here in Kona. They farm all different kinds of seahorses and dragons. I have had lunch with the owners a few times. They are the beginning of what I hope is a trend in the market. Farm raising of these animals is a better and safer alternative than taking from the wild.

"To win a bloodless war, the battle is long."

that a lot of fish have enourmous difficulty being farm raised, hopefully Sea Horses will be an exception.

Many times, the efforts that go into raising exotic farm fish make the fish that much more expensive than those taken from the wild, making them less appealing from the monetary standpoint of the aquarist.

On the other hand, exotic fish are often caught in the wild through the use of cyanide poison, and this bothers the serious aquarists. The cyanide stuns the fish and makes it easy to scoop them up. Unfortunately, once that fish hits the stores, it may die, or never fully recover from the poison - making it susceptable to diseases and such. The fish then dies in transit, or even in the tank of a well meaning aquarist. Since most "reputable" fish stores offer a guarantee on their fish (even if it's not "on the books"), the aquarist goes back and requests a fish to replace the one that died - producing more end sales for the off-shore "collector".

Let's not forget that the poison also collects on the reefs and kills a lot of other organisms, like sponges.

In the end, only the illegal collectors make out since the store has to eat the cost of the fish because they can't make a big hoot about where they come from.

 

[zboss]

I currently have a reef tank. To avoid from contributing to buying wild caught specimens, I buy fish and coral from www.thelogicalreef.com or a company called ORA which only sell captive bred species.

speaks very highly of that company...