People,
The shipment is the result of about 15 years of very expensive effort that has finally begun to pay off. My Mexican partner Arturo Valdes eventually died in the endless pursuit of this very permit.
The costs of survey after scientific survey nearly exhausted our resources and is why no one else...including all the L.A. importers are in this thing. Few people are as hard headed as I and they quit long before before the needed breakthrus will occur.
I speak Spanish and work with biologists, partners , officials and fishers all the time.
I also spend more time with the US Fish and Wildlife Service then you might imagine and pre-alert them and reveal all permits to them.
We decided to house the fishes with Aquarium Concepts as they are near my house and the airports and wildlife services and brokers.
The economic slowdown left many tanks at A.C. lightly stocked and I saw an opportunity to propose to house them in a good, safe place while I set up a new wharehouse. I like his RK-2 skimmer, competent staff and attention to detail on disease issues.
Its also temporary.
Crowding?
They are a social angel and mediums and large ones do much better in groups. The fewer there are the more they fight. Totally unlike passers...
OUT OF 288 FISH...THERE WERE NO DOAS and it was no accident. We know what we are doing.
Decompressed right, clean circulating water, noses not rubbed, skin not abrased etc. etc are the norm on these fish.
I caught 1/3 rd of them myself and my local collecting team the rest.
These young fish were collected over a large range and represent many thousands seen. Surveys and permits preceed all collection activity by years.
The currents were rough, cuts and bruises were many as were the sharks.
The boatman topside saw a lot more then I did as I spent the whole time underwater with nose stuck in the cracks looking for little fishes..
Once a huge shadow passed overhead...it was a giant manta ray.
The USFWS then reviews the paperwork and when in order, allows the importation....and then they review and charge again for the exportation.
Most of the fish encountered are adults...ie breeders and we are one of the only fisheries in the world that see yearling fishes as more valueable.
The older fishes are all left to breed and make plankton. They make millions and millions of clarion babies every year but mother nature uses eggs as much as food as anything else.
Asia wants big breeder size fishes, we took none. Zero.
The fish are not that special in their region...the prevalence of healthy habitat is and is what determines their abundance.
We caught less then the quota allowed and the collecting permit is now expired.
Although abundant in their own habitat...they are rare in human hands, especially in Asian, urban centers of passionate mass consumerism.
Thankfully someones sees enough value in the fish to support the research on it and the fishery from it.
If they were biologically rare there would be a point here but then again, they wouldn't be allowed out!
They are only rare to our eyes which is a culturally skewed definition of the term "rare"and hardly credible.
Now gem tangs are rare in their own habitat...so are conspic angels and many species of the most coveted of fish and corals.
Half of the fish will be exported this week now that the holidays are over. Thanksgiving slowed us down and kept the fishes all together and from being shipped out.
If you think its crowded at A.C. you really need to see a local wholesaler after putting away 70 boxes of Philippine fish sometime. This is in fact a wholesale operation that allowed the public to have a peek.
Shall we keep imported fishes hidden in wharehouses as a rule? If there is a problem with revealing how the trade works a bit, perhaps we should.
I thought people might find it interesting.
Steve
