Here is the entire article from the May 2002 issue of Pet Product News:
DOA Standards
Stir Objections
In Fish Trade
By Kinney Littlefield
Special to Pet Product News
Ornamental fish retailers may be caught between a reef and a hard place.
Brewing scenarios include eventual government regulation-or compliance with the tough but evolving standards for fish mortality set by the nonprofit Marine Aquarium Council, an international network of conservation and industry groups.
According to its Web site, the council’s mission is to conserve coral reefs and other marine ecosystems by creating standards and certification for those engaged in the collection and care of ornamental marine life from reef to aquarium.
Its standards, launched last November, specify adherence to a 1 percent fish mortality rate in order to qualify for MAC certification, a combination quality-assurance seal and eco-label.
The standards can also be interpreted as 2 percent mortality-1 percent dead on arrival plus 1 percent dead after arrival. MAC intends its new certification system to promote sustainable harvesting and protect marine organisms and coral reefs.
But many experienced wholesalers and retailers find the standards unfeasible.
“The only thing we can do with 1 percent is fail,” says Bruce Davidson, owner of Sandy’s Pet Store in Louisville, Ky.
A charter member of the American Marinelife Dealers Association, which supports the MAC standards, Davidson also served on MAC’s standards advisory group.
Davidson says his shop’s mortality rate is “on average not more than 3 percent and I’m surprised if I have 7 percent.”
Some retailers cite 5 percent to 10 percent mortality as routine.
In fact, MAC derived the 1 percent rate not from actual trials but from conversations with one importer, Walt Smith of L.A.-based Walt Smith International, and one collector, Tony Nahacky of Fiji, MAC certification coordin
ator Dave Vosseler says.
Smith is a collector and importer who ships to himself, ensuring above average control of harvesting and handling.
“I’m in a unique situation,” Smith says. “I don’t believe the industry worldwide at this moment can achieve the 1 percent.”
MAC officials are more optimistic about the standards, based on a study conducted in the Philippines from April-November 2001. Held to determine if the MAC certification system was feasible in the field, the study included about 250 collectors at 18 collection sites and four exporters.
“In about 75 percent of the cases, from reef to export, they met the 1 percent [mortality] requirement for DOA and DAA,” MAC program officer Rezal Kusumaatmadja says.
Adds Vosseler, “I think the industry is a lot better than it thinks it is.”
Granted, MAC’s study did not track fish from export through import and distribution to retail stores.
And now, under attack from wholesalers and retailers-especially those who feel they were left out of the decision-making process-MAC is now backpedaling a bit. A small ad hoc group composed mostly of wholesalers is starting to revisit the 1 percent standard, Vosseler says, with possible reinterpretation or revision in mind.
“I’m part of a committee now that is looking at options, including changing the standards,” Vosseler says.
“There is a lot of misunderstanding and legitimate concern,” says Marshall Meyers, executive vice-president and general counsel of the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, and MAC’s president/treasurer and chairman of its board of directors. “It’s something MAC will have to address.”
The mortality standard is not the only MAC-mandated item at issue. Also in play is development of an unsuitable species list that would prohibit sale of difficult-to-raise, venomous, poisonous and other animals.
MAC’s certification system also requires documentation of chain-of-custody for marine organisms, from collection in the Philippines, Fiji, Hawaii or elsewhere, through export and import to the animals’ final destination at the retail store.
Establishing compliance with the certification system could cost the average retail store “several hundred to $500” for certification by an independent company, MAC Executive Director Paul Holthus says. Retailers could form groups to cost-share, he adds.
Participation in MAC certification is voluntary. Retailers are free to carry both MAC-certified and non-certified fish.
The compliance carrot that MAC dangles is the MAC-certification logo itself, a sign to consumers that retailers are concerned about the care and quality of their animals as well as the environment-and a sign to the government that the ornamental fish trade is policing itself.
Still, “MAC’s standards have already been published and are on governmental agencies’ desks,” says importer Rob Miller of ERI International in El Segundo, Calif.
“How does one then go about retracting that?” Miller says. “We’re caught between a rock and a hard place. If we don’t put out a very low number, [the government] may crack down on us. The environmental groups have strong lobbies in Washington and they want to shut the industry down.”
MAC has presented its certification system and standards to the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force. Two years ago the task force drafted legislation that would regulate the ornamental fish trade. Although the legislation stalled after the November 2000 presidential election, its specter still looms.
Meanwhile MAC is defending its standards.
“We did a very thorough public review to begin with, but much of the industry chose not to take part,” Vosseler says.
Discussions were largely conducted by e-mail within the standards advisory group. Reportedly not all group members were involved. MAC also posted a call for public comment on its Web site,
www.aquariumcouncil.org.
“No one wants to have the government involved,” Vosseler says. “What we need is calm so we have time to work with the industry and work these problems out so the industry doesn’t look bad.”
And MAC is open to input from retailers, Holthus says. “Call us up or send us an e-mail. It’s an open door.”
The Marine Aquarium Council is located at 923 Nu’uanu Ave., Honolulu, Hawaii 96817; telephone (808) 550-8217; fax, (808) 550-8317; e-mail
[email protected].
Some industry operators feel MAC is focusing on the wrong end of the trade, burdening retailers with extra paperwork and vigilance when training and monitoring of divers and collectors at the source would ensure lower fish mortality.
There’s also the fear that the 1 percent mortality standard will force all parties, from collectors to retailers, to play hot potato, rapidly selling fish before they de-stress so they will die in someone else’s tank.
And the value of a prominently displayed MAC label is unknown at this point.
“Until MAC creates a commodity that the end consumer desires, it has no value to me,” retailer Davidson says.
“It needs to be MAC’s job to educate consumers. When they come to me and ask for a MAC-certified product, then it will be very important to me to offer it. If I think I can achieve long term success without MAC, then I will do that.”
Kinney Littlefield is a free-lance writer in Southern California.
