Here is the "disclaimer" from my site that's been there since day 1:
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Remember: Our fish selection is smaller than other companies because we only offer net caught fish. Over 80% of the fish imported into the United States come from the Philippines and Indonesia. These are the two countries with the worst record of cyanide use, however they provide the industry with the largest variety of fish and the cheapest prices. To be blunt, companies that claim to offer only net caught fish but have a fish selection that includes practically every species you can think of are LYING to make you feel good about buying from them. After all, you have no way of verifying it. Why do you think they only list the country of origin for certain species and not all species like we do? It's the same lie that has been perpetuated to retailers for years by their wholesalers "Sure it's net caught- how many do you want?". Here's a good example. Mandarinfish come from the Philippines. I called up a company that claims to not import fish from there and asked them where their mandarins came from. They said the Solomon Islands. Now to an unsuspecting hobbyist, that sounds like a good answer. But I know for a FACT that mandarins do not come from the Solomons. If these companies claims were true, they should be shouting from the rooftops that they have a huge variety of guaranteed net caught fish available- not burying the information on some "guarantee" page within their website.
Another lie is that some companies claim to have exclusive divers in the Philippines or Indonesia in order to guarantee their fish are net caught. Impossible! The collection areas of these two countries are so vast that not a single export company has the capability of employing exclusive divers in all areas. You will notice that we do import certain species from the Philippines. We have consulted with Steve Robinson to determine which fish are not cyanide targets. He is known as the father of the net caught movement in the Philippines and spent years there training divers to use nets instead of cyanide. He has been gracious enough to give us a list of which fish are cyanide targets, which fish are sometimes cyanide caught, and which fish aren't. We only buy fish in the "never cyanide caught" list. All of our other fish come from countries where cyanide use is non-existent. With these strict standards in place, you can be 99% sure that the fish you receive from *** are hand caught. (I would never be so brazen to say 100% unless I was there collecting them myself!) One more thing that makes us stand out from the crowd...you aren't going to see sharks, fish that get huge, or known obligate feeders (fish that only feed on things like sponge or coral polyps) on this website. I feel it's irresponsible to sell animals with known requirements that can't be met by the average hobbyist. You will see animals that are considered to be difficult, and they are noted.
Sorry for the long rant, but I get really frustrated by "pseudo-reformists"...
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Now as hard as I strive to not import cyanide caught fish, I still don't claim to be completely cyanide free. What makes me ill are the companies that aren't even trying to stay true to net caught fish, but claim that they do. This sets back the reform agenda because people think "Well, if big companies like **** and **** don't have a problem getting 100% net caught fish then there must not be much of a problem". It is pure fraud, plain and simple. If a sponsor were to come to reefs.org and say "Hey, all of our fish are cyanide caught and we don't care. We just want to make a buck", I have a feeling that the administ
ators would say "Thanks, but no thanks". But just because a couple of sponsors (and we're only talking about a couple of companies here that are doing the blatant lying) are putting pretty little environmental policies on their sites that give everyone warm fuzzy feelings then everything is A-ok. It's akin to MAC putting pretty little certification stickers on drugged fish. It's irresponsible, it's wrong, and it harms the true reform movement. All these companies have to do is REMOVE the statements saying they are clean. That's it. If not, they are opening themselves up to a nasty lawsuit. There are other companies out there who do business without making such boastful and fraudulent claims, why can't these few do the same??