Florida Wholesale Collection Habits

[RasBobre]

A client of mine (Steve, you have met her at the WMC) returned from a recent visit to Florida where she was able to dive with her niece who works (on shore) for a wholesaler.

She witnessed a collector using a squirt bottle to stun the many parrot fish he was collecting. My client being an educated hobbiest was alarmed thinking that it was cyanide, but was told that it was ether.

My questions. Was it ether? Cyanide? Or nothing to be concerned about? And how common is this practice? What is the life expectancy of a fish caught under these practices?

-Robert

 

[clarionreef]

Robert,
Its no doubt a cocktail of Quinaldine and isopropyll alcohol.
The alcohol is used as a cutting agent to render the quin soluable in water.
The alcohol burns the gills and kills larvae, fry and eggs.
The practice is old in Florida but is supposed to be regulated thru quin permits.
Its a poorly skilled collectors routine and makes a mockery of the move to train Filipinos and Indonesians to use nets.
Steve

 

[naesco]

Is this still legal in Florida?

 

[Anonymous]

Robert,
Its no doubt a cocktail of Quinaldine and isopropyll alcohol.
The alcohol is used as a cutting agent to render the quin soluable in water.
The alcohol burns the gills and kills larvae, fry and eggs.
The practice is old in Florida but is supposed to be regulated thru quin permits.Its a poorly skilled collectors routine and makes a mockery of the move to train Filipinos and Indonesians to use nets.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

It's OK Vitz, we've all come to learn Wayne never reads the entire post he replies to :lol:

 

[Tropic]

:lol:

It starts to get old and annoying after awhile. Wayne is not even in the industry, nor does he ever read post correctly, and he always gets fired up over something he misread yet the song remains the same.

PAY ATTENTION!

 

[naesco]

The operative words were supposed to be regulated

Wayne

 

[spawner]

Suppose to be regulated means that it is legal but their are no real rules or enforced guidelines on its use as long as you have a lisence you can carry it. They use to ask it to be cut with actone, but recently the state has been asking it to be cut with ethonal or isoprop.

 

[naesco]

Suppose to be regulated means that it is legal but their are no real rules or enforced guidelines on its use as long as you have a lisence you can carry it. They use to ask it to be cut with actone, but recently the state has been asking it to be cut with ethonal or isoprop.

Thanks Spawner,
Have they considered cutting it' use out completely?
Wayne

 

[Caterham]

Naesco,

Thanks so much for your comments on this thread. With no involvement in the trade of marine ornamentals it is no wonder that you have many questions.

 

[RasBobre]

Thank you for your responses.

Are there more thoughts on this collection habit?

What other methods other than a net and a little probing or chasing are used in collecting?

I am still a bit in shock that a stunning chemical other than the cyanide, which I am well aware of the affects, is being used in the indusrty. I did mistake the chemical ether in my original post and am not sure if it is used in the industry.

 

[clarionreef]

Rob,
As with many topics....this website here at RDO is a veritable historical achive of discussion of the issues involving the social, scientific and moral intersections with our trade.
Quinaldine and its misuse and abuse has been discussed here quite a bit actually.
Is there a search feature that could just bring it up with a click of the mouse.?
Steve
PS. only dopers use dope

 

[clarionreef]

From an article by Elizabeth Wood;

Quinaldine is another narcotic associated with the ornamental industry.
It is fairly widely used in Florida and some other countries, but is banned in others (e.g. Hawaii). It is reported to be less dangerous than cyanide, but capable of killing fish during collection when concentrations are high or

exposure time is long (Randall, 1987). Alternatively, latent damage may cause death some days later.

Corals and other reef organisms may also be damaged or killed, not only from the effects of the quinaldine itself but from the acetone or alcohol solvents (Randall, 1987; Jaap and Wheaton, 1996). Jaap and Wheaton (1996) found that some corals bleached from application of quinaldine to their tissues. They also found that small cryptic animals were stupefied by quinaldine and were very easy prey for the blueheads that trailed them during the experiments.


ps.
I've witnessed it plenty in the Keys and in Mexico in the 80's.
We got Mexican collectors off the juice by supplanting it with superior methodologies ie. simple nets and tiny hook and lines for jawfishes.
Our good example spread among the collectors and beyond to collectors we never met. The new methods stuck and now drug collecting in Mexico has ceased.
I know we can do this anywhere.
Steve

 

[bobimport]

Re Quin In Haiti they use 151 rum to cut the quin. Talk about juiced fish LOL

 

[naesco]

Re Quin In Haiti they use 151 rum to cut the quin. Talk about juiced fish LOL

Quin use fairly common in the Caribbean?

 

[bobimport]

Nope only in Haiti and limited in Fl.


Bob

 

[naesco]

Nope only in Haiti and limited in Fl.


Bob

Thanks for the info Bob

 

[PeterIMA]

Naesco, I have been contacted by collectors using Quinaldine in Puerto Rico. It is used elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Peter

 

[clarionreef]

In the mid 80's PIJAC [ industry lobby group ] worked out a deal whereby big importers would fund a large purchase of quinaldine to use as a substitute for cyanide.
Sorta like methadone for heroin users.
In fact, they were bragging about how easy it was for them to solve the problem in a meeting or two. 8)
Steve

 

[PeterIMA]

Steve, As I recall, the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vetoed the idea of substituting cyanide with quinaldine.

I have interviewed a former MAF collector in the Florida Keys who told that the mortality in her holding facility on fishes caught using quinaldine was 59%. Considering this and other detrimental effects, we should be banning the use of quinaldine for MAF collection in Florida. It is a good thing that BFAR vetoed the PIJAC plan.

Peter