Tropical Fish Trade Under Spotlight as Sales Boom
Reuters News
September 30, 2003
PARIS (Reuters) - The capture and trade in more than 20 million tropical fish for aquariums each year earns cash for poor fishing communities but too often sends the fish to their deaths, a U.N. report said Tuesday.
The trade in aquarium creatures is worth up to $330 million a year, the U.N. Environment Program's World Conservation Monitoring Center's report "From Ocean to Aquarium" said.
"Some fish are completely unsuitable to aquariums," said Ed Green, one of the report's authors, adding mishandling of the rare fish often started very early in the supply chain.
"Some fish are just treated as disposable commodities, exposed to the sunlight for hours after being caught and stored in plastic bags on their long journey from Southeast Asian reefs to aquariums in North America and Europe," he told Reuters.
He said there was no indication that the aquarium trade was threatening any species with extinction, although some harvesting methods, like stunning the fish with a near-lethal dose of sodium cyanide, could harm both fish and coral reefs.
About 50,000 people in Sri Lanka are directly involved in the export of marine life, a business which also provides a strong incentive to preserve fish stocks and reef environments.
The report recommends the wider application of certification schemes by the Marine Aquarium Council (MAC), an international not-for-profit organization. Green said parents buying fish for their children should also pay more attention to their origin.
The sale of clown fish shot up this year because of the movie "Finding Nemo," a computer-animated tale of a clown fish who ends up in a dentist's aquarium.
"Nemo has created interest but also led to problems," said Green, adding many children had flushed fish down the toilet in an effort to send them back to the sea and parents had placed clown fish in fresh water boxes.
Reuters News
September 30, 2003
PARIS (Reuters) - The capture and trade in more than 20 million tropical fish for aquariums each year earns cash for poor fishing communities but too often sends the fish to their deaths, a U.N. report said Tuesday.
The trade in aquarium creatures is worth up to $330 million a year, the U.N. Environment Program's World Conservation Monitoring Center's report "From Ocean to Aquarium" said.
"Some fish are completely unsuitable to aquariums," said Ed Green, one of the report's authors, adding mishandling of the rare fish often started very early in the supply chain.
"Some fish are just treated as disposable commodities, exposed to the sunlight for hours after being caught and stored in plastic bags on their long journey from Southeast Asian reefs to aquariums in North America and Europe," he told Reuters.
He said there was no indication that the aquarium trade was threatening any species with extinction, although some harvesting methods, like stunning the fish with a near-lethal dose of sodium cyanide, could harm both fish and coral reefs.
About 50,000 people in Sri Lanka are directly involved in the export of marine life, a business which also provides a strong incentive to preserve fish stocks and reef environments.
The report recommends the wider application of certification schemes by the Marine Aquarium Council (MAC), an international not-for-profit organization. Green said parents buying fish for their children should also pay more attention to their origin.
The sale of clown fish shot up this year because of the movie "Finding Nemo," a computer-animated tale of a clown fish who ends up in a dentist's aquarium.
"Nemo has created interest but also led to problems," said Green, adding many children had flushed fish down the toilet in an effort to send them back to the sea and parents had placed clown fish in fresh water boxes.
