The talk about bans and the like got me thinking. What kind of principles could we agree on? I was thinking about something that could be kind of like a manifesto for political defense, but that’s too much for now I think. I’m just thinking aloud.
I think lowest common denominator stuff I think everyone could agree on include:
I think lowest common denominator stuff I think everyone could agree on include:
- we will care for our purchased animals (and plants!) for life, as much as we can. We will give them a good environment. We will give our fish ample room in our tanks. (harder for corals because most corals, if well cared for, will inevitably outgrow the biggest aquarium. But they can be fragged easily) We will keep their water clean. etc.
- when purchasing wild fish, crustaceans, etc., we will buy hand caught specimens, which do not employ cyanide, explosive, etc. in the collection process or which otherwise damage the original environment. If we buy wild corals, we will buy them from vendors who carefully, responsibly, and sustainably frag them.
- we will buy from shops who treat their animals well, who do not simply “flip fish before they die in a few days”, and from vendors who minimize fish deaths from collection to retail store. (comment: I read an article a few weeks ago that a well managed saltwater aquarium fishery can reliably have loss rates around 1-2%. https://reefs.com/2018/03/14/sobering-new-data-on-aquarium-industry-survival-rates/)
- we are interested in, and care for, the wild populations and their environment. (comment: many of us snorkel/dive as well)
- I do not mind catch or harvest limits if an area’s fishery (and coral-ery, if that's a word) is of questionable sustainability.
- I do not, from a philosophical/ethical POV, really care if, given all the above, an animal is wild caught (with all the caveats above), maricultured (raised in controlled areas in the sea), or aquacultured (for these purposes, bred and raised in commercial aquaria in the country of sale).
- I do care from a practical point of view. I want my livestock to come as directly from the source to me as possible. I have worked directly with a collector, kpaquatics, to send fish directly to me by fedex. I would prefer to get my clownfish, if not quarantined by a retailer, directly from ORA. I am told that the mortality rate from non-aquacultured corals, for all but experience coral keeps, is much higher than for aquacultured ones.
- I also believe that a healthy source location saltwater aquarium collection/mariculture industry will help the locals who love their reefs take care of them, and make those who don’t care value it more than they otherwise would (and hopefully they won’t use explosives to catch fish for industrial food fishing, or dredge up their lagoons to build stuff on the land, or cut up corals heads and live rock to serve as construction mateirial, etc.)
- I also believe the poor aquaculture or mariculture can have negative environmental impacts. The case of Banggai Cardinals becoming massively invasive in Thailand due to aqua/maricultured inviduals being inadvertently (we hope) released - while being critically endangered on Banggai - is an example.
- I believe that learning how to do captive breeding for each species, as well as an appreciation for, and knowledge of, the local environment your pets come from, is an inherent part of the aquarium hobby. These breeding attempts (which for reef fish generally require bio-lab or public aquarium level facilities) also are the basis for future aquaculture.
- I think this way because that is what Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine was when I subscribed to it in the late 1970s-90s. All the time there were reports from the field about where fish lived/were collected. As well as articles lionizing people who made the substantial effort to be the first to breed a species, especially odd things like the wood cat (Trachelyopterus fisheri) or bichirs (Polypterus ornatus), and even freshwater needlefish (the first breeding and fry raising attempt in the 70s sounded like quite an effort for that TFH writer, talking about running around everywhere trying to get other fish fry to feed the piscivorous needlefish fry). The recent successful breeding of corals at the Horniman museum, and the prospect of ornamental genetic engineering of coral larvae, is exciting.
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