An excellent and relevant quote

[Anonymous]

Mike,

I didn't really mean to sound grumpy earlier. It just floored me that you thought I deserved a lecture on the evils of cyanide when all I was doing was asking whether netting was going to significantly impove the problem or whether something more comprehensive was needed.

 

[mkirda]

Mike in your defense I didn't fully read the last thing you said in your post.

2) The cost of cyanide is no longer borne by collectors. This alone allows income to go up.

I figured the cost of sodium cyanide was negligable when compared to the cost of netting.

Actually, it is not considered to be cheap by the collectors.

A tablet might be as much as a couple of days worth of wages for construction work in the provinces.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[mkirda]

Mike,

I didn't really mean to sound grumpy earlier. It just floored me that you thought I deserved a lecture on the evils of cyanide when all I was doing was asking whether netting was going to significantly impove the problem or whether something more comprehensive was needed.

Not meant as a lecture, per se, Don.

However, I do not think that those numbers are/were particularly well understood by the hobby, so I thought I would put them out there.

The take home message was that net-caught will lower the number of fish actually taken from the reef, decreasing the fishing pressure. The catch per unit effort for fish that actually survive will increase dramatically (assuming, of course, that the fish caught typically survive in aquaria to begin with...).

Anyway, if the cyanide use goes down and the fishing pressure goes down, the reef should begin to rebound anyway. It would do even better with a comprehensive management plan in place, with continuing resource assessments and large no-take zones.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[Anonymous]

How does that compare with the cost of net?

Also, I understand that the cyanide cartel might not buy fish from people that do not purchase cyanide from them. How can change be affected with groups with policies like that in place?

 

[mkirda]

How does that compare with the cost of net?

Also, I understand that the cyanide cartel might not buy fish from people that do not purchase cyanide from them. How can change be affected with groups with policies like that in place?

The netting would represent maybe a week to two weeks wages for a barrier net, assuming the prices I was quoted are correct. However, many families weave their own barrier nets... Monofilament is cheap.

Not all exporters are members of the cartel. There are those that will only buy net-caught fish. It is a matter of selling to the few rather than the many.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[Anonymous]

So you are saying that many collectors were forced to sell to the cartel because they could afford the cyanide, but couldn't afford or couldn't otherwise obtain appropriate netting material?

Won't the cartel object to collectors leaving and "make them an offer they can't refuse"? It soulds like the cartel is a bunch of thugs. Who's to say that the next cartel doesn't force people to buy netting from them? Without addressing the thug issue we might just be switching the cartel from a non-environmental bunch of thugs to an evironmentally friendly bunch?

 

[clarionreef]

Sard et al,
Netting is very cheap compared to cyanide use by a factor of 20:1! Unlike netting material, Cyanide needs to be purchased every trip to Manila.
Sell the fish and bring back a few kilos of cyanide every single time! Over the cost of a year you're looking at 50 kilos plus of cyanide per diver per year. Juxtaposed to the cost of netting...the cost of netting is negligible. Its just that the netting is a one shot purchase...as they can last quite some time, even a year.
Add to the equation the superior catches of fish that netting brings and you really have a more efficient, cheaper way to catch fish that last longer and die less. These are the reasons divers convert to nets. Not because the some Americans think cyanide is bad.
If cyanide were as efficient as many Americans figure it to be, it would be much more difficult to get divers to convert. There no problem in converting fisherman. They're easy to train if you know what you're doing. If you don't know what you're doing they'll laugh at you
The problem issues that need solving are strictly associated with funding, turf, ego, politics and administration of training programs. Training NGOs and so called reform groups is much more difficult then training divers.
Sincerely, Steve