How do you think the aquarium hobby drives Conservation?

[gsepanik]

I am writing an essay for my final analyzing the ways in which the saltwater aquarium hobby helps (or hurts) conservation efforts when it comes to preserving our natural reefs. How do companies like ORA or Biota help these efforts? Would these companies exist without the hobby? How does at-home propagation of coral species help? I would like the input of fellow community members on ways in which they think the hobby is beneficial to fighting extinction and preserving species. Thoughts?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

That's a tough question! No easy, single answer. Even captive propagation, while it seems to be more sustainable, can actually drive the trade in wild caught, less sustainable options. The idea there would be: ready access to captive raised animals improves longevity, which in turn increases the participation in the hobby because people do better with their tanks. All well and good until that greater participation then causes an increase in the consumption of less sustainable choices - by virtue of people staying in the hobby longer, and then buying more things like giant anemones that are not sustainably harvested.

Overall though - captively propagated animals are more sustainable, and will only make our hobby better.

Jay

 

[Reef and Dive]

IMHO our most important impact on this matter is on divulgation and propagation of love for those animals and uderstanding their fragility.

That put aside, we surely develop every day more efficient and complex methods to keep those animals. Many scientific studies use pretty often reefing methods even knowing they have never been originally published on scientific papers. Even though reefers usually receive zero credit for that we surely leave our very important contribution.

 

[FSP]

I don't think it does. Things like captive breeding/coral propagation help protect the wild from the hobby, but I don't see what the hobby itself gives back to the wild.

 

[zaga]

Unless there is a decline in wild caught fish and corals or as FSP said, we give back to the wild itself, our hobby doesn't really contribute to conservation.

If anything, as the hobby grows demand for wild caught specimens will probably increase also.

 

[argiBK]

I doubt that the current volume in captive bred fish and aquacultured corals drives down demand for counterpart wild caught species. Our hobby just isn’t popular enough for captive bred efforts to have that level of impact on global demand — save for specific cases where a species natural populations are threatened due to very specific geographic range (e.g. Bangaii Cardinals).

However, that shouldn’t stop efforts for companies like Biota to keep doing what they’re doing for several reasons.

1. Knowledge gain for how to successfully breed a vast array of marine species (and their diversity of mating strategies, from egg laying to pelagic spawning) means we inherently become more successful at breeding all species. These companies are doing great research and work, and while breeding some species may never be viable for the average hobbyist, it does benefit companies and researchers who have an interest in breeding.
   • This might yield benefits for species that are being overfished to extinction, such as Tuna.
   • This also has the potential to drive down prices for highly prized or currently uncollected fish. The work Poma labs is doing with angels, especially conspics is making that fish more accessible (though still very expensive, but half the cost that $6000 wild caught conspics command). I personally would love to have a captive bred Resplendent Angel or Potter’s Angel.
2. In retrospect of witnessing mass coral die-off due to heating oceans, or habitat destruction from commercial trawling, chemical dumping, etc. aquaculture does have potential to preserve wild populations of coral species and rebuild/sustain wild reefs that support natural populations of marine life. Selective culturing of more heat resistant, faster growing specimens might make a difference, but I don’t know if this has been proven yet.
3. The argument for corals also rings true for fish that are bred, hatched and raised in captivity, making species like Regal Angels which are notoriously difficult to keep alive more successful in our aquariums (really looking forward for CB Copperbands to make market myself). Not that they need survival assistance in the wild (though there are larger, long-term implications here for heating oceans which drive tropical fish populations towards the planet’s poles). Regardless, I think we know that captive bred fish generally are more successful in home aquariums which can provide infinitely less stable environments than the ocean.

We might really be at the beginning stages of all these advancements, but it’s a net net gain (in my opinion) for both hobbyists, research and the planet.