"We killing the ocean?"

[Acone15]

I am about to get back into the hobby, however I continue to have mixed feelings about what im doing.

Today I was reading that about 30 million fish and 1.5 million live stoney corals are removed from the wild each year "Every 12 months" specificaly for the aquarium trade. HALF of all fish and corals removed, die in transport. Also, America consumes more than half of the entire market.

Since our oceans reefs continue vanish around the world, why should I continue my loved hobby for personal enjoyment if it is effecting the oceans negatively.

Now, I know there are certain regulation groups such as, Marine Conservation Congress, and International Trade in Endangered Species however research from "a few colleges" and several studies from various Ocean Concervation Societies have argued that the regualtions are not effective.

Just a though to get my fellow aquarist to think a little.... I love the hobby and find it very enjoyable. I have had aquariums my entire life, and i am not bashing anyone. I have killed numerious fish and corals throughout my time in the hobby.. but what do you think???? If we love fish and marine life so much why are we hurting it.... or are we???

The life expectancy of a yellow Tang is over years in the wild. In an aquarium it am guessing it probably around 3 or 4 years.

(Information from my post came directly from "Aquabits" section of Aquarium and Fish International Magazine)

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

You could always take up horticulture.

 

[duke62]

well you dnt need to buy wild caught species if you want to be in the hobby.there are many varieties of corals and fish that are breed or aquacultured.you will pay more but you can feel good that you are personally not destroying the oceans.

 

[Acone15]

wow chief.. did you think of that all by yourself? good job!

 

[tentacles]

well you dnt need to buy wild caught species if you want to be in the hobby.there are many varieties of corals and fish that are breed or aquacultured.you will pay more but you can feel good that you are personally not destroying the oceans.

+1, you could also try stocking your new tank with frags from other member's tanks.

 

[James]

As others have said, it is completely possible in this day and age to stock a beautiful tank with 100% aqua-cultured rock, fish and coral.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

May slightly limited in choice at the time when you want them but you can limit yourself to get frags from grown outs, either from fellow members or commercial horticulture farms. As for fish, there interesting tank bread fish as well, may be limited in selection but nevertheless they are colorful from orange to purple, black to white, and from yellow to blue.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

:wow:
:tired:

It was just a joke. Relax.

 

[RARECLOWNSNJ]

We are slowly killing the reefs but its not just this hobby, its overfishing, pollution, divers.

Many factors and blame can not be put solely on one. In this hobby thou i have to say that not all but some vendors and wholesalers should use better judgement when bring buying in importing animals.

Example Dyed Anemones. I cant say that any vendors on here do it but i have seen them at lots of others stores. They dyed these anemones because they are bleached and otherwise dont look good. The bright colors make them more sellable, most die.

 

[LatinP]

We've been slowly killing the ocean ever since man thought up how to transport large containers via transcontinental ships or drilling for oil in the middle of the ocean.

The divers that collect wild coral and fish add to the problem but if we stopped that completely I'm not sure we'd be in any better shape. The oceans are still dying, to make things worse if we stopped collecting and all the reefs did die out all that would be left is what we'd have in our private collections.

Theoretically speaking if we ever needed our coral to jump start a new reef we wouldn't even have that.

 

[cowfish]

I've read studies which have indicated that the ornamental trade has very little negativei mpact on ocean life when compared to everything else that's going on - acidification of the ocean water, pollution, rising temperatures, etc.

As previously mentioned, if you are so inclined, buy only aquacultured animals and frags from friends tanks.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

I would assume just one fishing boat that practice drag netting, such as harvesting tiger shrimps, will cause more damage than the damage to the ocean caused by whole New York City with ornamental trade. Many industrialize fishing boats can fish out 20 years worth of seafood(compared to the local fishing practice there) in one trip to Asia. The trip usually last less than 3 months and some times the armada consists over 20 ships from various industrialized countries. So in a 3 months times, the industrialized fishing practice can fish out 400 years worth of sea food in that area. It's clear the practice is unsustainable for the area, therefore these ships move to another location next year. Unlike whales population which recovered after 10 years of endanger listing, survey shows most of those over invaded islands did not recover even after 20 years. The ornamental trade are mostly done by divers who cannot even harvest more than those primitive way of fishing(lines and small net with a small paddler boat), so you should be able to see the negative effective is minimal. However, because ornamental trade is usually going for the exotic stuff, therefore ornamental trade's negative effect would be more prominent in exotic species than ocean as a general.

 

[irvp13]

I?m concern with what?s happening with the ocean and reefs dying as well, but I?d not quit the hobby because of that. I?ve bought some show size pieces but mostly I trade frags with members.
I also agree with the fact that there is so much stuff killing the ocean that the damage made by the hobby can be counted as minimal. Things like shark finning, oil spills, temperature and acidity changes that can wipe an entire ecosystem rather fast.
Lastly, a few weeks ago I read that there are places were reefs are being seeded with aqua cultured frags. So the hobby is also giving back to the ocean.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

...
Lastly, a few weeks ago I read that there are places were reefs are being seeded with aqua cultured frags. So the hobby is also giving back to the ocean.

Are the frags really from hobbyists? Most seeding programs are government run programs not hobbyists program-that's the frags are mostly frag off the ocean for the main purpose of grow out and re-seeding the needed area of the ocean .

 

[RARECLOWNSNJ]

Thats why i breed anemonefish, and only buy wild caught if its a pair that no one has bred

 

[tosiek]

I thought global warming was going to cause a huge rise in sea level. That means more water for fish and coral to swim and spawn in. We should have a HUGE boost in fish population and not to mention all those seaside towns turning into reefs.

But seriously, you can do the hobby completely home grown if you want to.

 

[pbjelly]

I thought global warming was going to cause a huge rise in sea level. That means more water for fish and coral to swim and spawn in. We should have a HUGE boost in fish population and not to mention all those seaside towns turning into reefs.

I think this was meant to be tongue-in-cheek - but the reefs around Florida have been decimated by temperature change - just in the last few years. I've read that the single biggest threat to reef ecosystems is global temperature fluctuations.
This is not to discount all of the other factors previously mentioned.

 

[howze01]

You could always take up horticulture.

You don't have to look any further than Orchid collecting to see that no matter what hobby you have, if it involves taking anything from the wild, it's going to hurt wild populations. There are more than a few Orchids that are now extinct in the wild from over collecting. I know you were just joking but figured I would throw that out there.

Out of the 40 or so frags I have between 3 tanks not more than 25% of them are bought from stores. The large majority are all from other reefers that have fragged their colonies.