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Aquarium fish
gets 'warranty'
Posted:11:07 PM (Manila Time) | Mar. 10, 2003
By Linda B. Bolido
Inquirer News Service
CHRISTOPHER Boeta is an overseas contract worker in the Cook Islands working as a diver. In a place where people probably learned to swim before they could walk, that might seem like hiring a Filipino to make wine in France or pasta in Italy.
But the 32-year-old Boeta, who works for the Cook Islands Aquarium Fish Ltd., has a skill not yet readily available in the self-governing New Zealand territory.
The native of Solomon Islands has been trained in Australia to collect aquarium fish in a sustainable manner.
That means no cyanide, no breaking the corals to get the marine animals out where they would be easier to catch, no overfishing and the right tools for bringing them to the surface.
The collection of aquarium fish may seem a harmless activity. But, together with the harvest of live fish and other seafood for high-end restaurants, it can cause havoc in a country's marine resources.
The use of cyanide – squirted to stun the fish so it can be easily collected – kills the corals and the countless tiny organisms that depend on them. And obviously breaking the coral to drive fishes out in the open for easier harvesting causes damage to the valuable resource that will take years to repair – if it can be fixed at all.
Chip Boyle, Boeta's boss, told a group of media people brought to the Cooks by the Washington D.C.-based SeaWeb and the Pacific Islands News Association that, increasingly, customers were saying they were not buying cyanide-caught fish anymore.
With the campaign for nature conservation being brought into the market place, this new consumer awareness is growing.
In the live fish trade in particular, the battle is being waged for the hearts and minds of hobbyists and foodies, who are constantly reminded that what their eyes and palates find delightful might be doing irreparable harm to the world's oceans and seas.
The special focus on the live fish trade is not surprising since the market is huge.
Michelle Lam, Pacific Region coordin
ator of Marine Aquarium Council (MAC), said in the United States alone, the value of retail trade in ornamental fish was about US$200 million.
Researcher Cristina Balboa said the total live fish trade volume amounted to about 1.5-2 billion dollars and some 11 million ornamental species were "consumed" by the US, the biggest customer accounting for some 60 percent of the trade, in one year alone.
Given this volume of business, environmental groups like MAC had to address such issues as overfishing, destructive collection practices, poor husbandry or handling of harvested species, unnecessary animal mortality and habitat degradation.
Charles Barber, vice president of the International Marinelife Alliance (IMA), acknowledged that sustainably collected fish would cost three to four-even six-times more than unsustainably harvested species.
But the price difference translates into a significant difference in lifespan. A healthy fish can survive for five to seven years while its cyanide-caught counterpart can last about six months. Besides, sustainable harvesting is more labor-intensive and resulted in fewer fish being caught.
Boyle said his divers, who went out to sea five days a week, averaged four to eight fish per day as they had to make sure they only caught fully mature and undamaged species. At least three different nets were used depending on the species being harvested. The divers also had to take care, when resurfacing, not to cause trauma to the fish.
The extreme care exercised in harvesting was carried over to the handling of harvest and shipment. Boyle said a fish with a chipped fin would be returned to the sea and a packing bag would hold no more than 15-22 pieces, depending on the species – the more "sociable" ones in bigger groups.
The major impact of the live fish trade on the environment prompted the adoption of a certification system almost similar to that for other consumer goods, particularly appliances.
Spearheaded by MAC, the system, which is now on its initial phase of implementation, involves the issuance of "warranty certificates" that indicate that the live fish was harvested in a sustainable manner.
Like other new things, the certification system is undergoing the expected birthing pains.
MAC, which is spearheading the initiative, acknowledged that several issues have to be addressed: "The need to ensure verification of no cyanide use where this practice of fishing continues to be a problem; the need to expand net-training for collectors and reef management to ensure a sufficient supply of certified fish; and the need to insure that the collectors realize tangible economic benefits from certification."
But Filipinos should take pride in the fact that, since the system got underway last year according to MAC, "the Batasan Tropical Fish Collectors Association in Bohol and Manila Exporters Aquarium Habitat, HD Marine World and Aquascapes Philippines were the first to gain MAC Certification."
In fact, the 27-member Batasan group of the town of Tubigon became the world's very first MAC Certified collector in October. It operates exclusively in the MAC Certified Batasan Island Collection Area.
The world's first MAC Certified importers and retailers welcomed the assurance of quality for the products they would be receiving.
Rick Preuss of Preuss Animal House, Lansing Michigan, said, "Having the assurance that these animals were caught and handled properly before they come under my care makes me a lot more comfortable when I sell them to my customers. For some more delicate organisms, I would rather wait for a MAC Certified one than have ones in stock that were not."
Retailer Brent Gardener, All Wet Pets, Flushing Michigan, said, "A lot of our customers are calling wanting MAC fish. We have some customers with tanks that have only MAC fish in them."
MAC is also focusing its effort and resources on working with collectors and communities not only to achieve certification but also to increase the supply of certified marine ornamentals.
Last year, IMA's Ferdinand Cruz worked with collectors and communities to develop collection area management plans and to train in net collecting, use of logbooks and post-harvest holding and handling techniques.
The MAC field staff has been working intensively with collectors in Coron, Palawan; Bagac, Bataan; Palauig, Zambales; and Clarin, Bohol, hoping to have these areas ready for certification early this year.
MAC is also collaborating on training programs for collectors with local governments in Lubang and Looc Islands in Mindoro and Camotes Island in Cebu, and developing the potential to provide training in parts of Mindanao and the provinces of Samar and Leyte.
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