Do we need professional STANDARDS?

[Ad van Tage]

I am throwing out the following for discussion!
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Do you think that it might be a good idea to have a Society of Registered or Professional Aquarists [ RAs or PAs (?) ] actually :idea: :idea: :idea:

Especially if that would mean, not unlike the Professional Engineers, that there would be STANDARDS :!: :!: :!:

One standard for instance, practiced by Professional/Registered Aquarists [ PAs/RAs ] could be related to the ethics of the catching of the creatures involved in the aquarium trade!


Do you think that a selfpolicing professional society, for "practicioners" in this field, a society with "sanctions" would be much preferable to an industry lobby-group.?
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IMHO! it would be better for ALL parties involved!

NOTE: Certification and/or registration would be a
PROFESSIONAL matter, not a trade-lobby thing.

 

[JennM]

I think the idea is interesting - but who would set the criteria?

Jenn

 

[hdtran]

Decloaking again...

I'm a P.E. Happens to be that in the subspecialty that I'm in, having the P.E. designation is as useful as bicycles to fish...

If you want your own standards, you can incorporate a non-profit organization to create your very own professional society (I'm a member of a professional society which was organized about 14 years ago; grew from about 1/2 dozen to currently over 500; their own professional journal, etc.). Then, you can set whatever standards you wish. The issues you would encounter include, who else would care? (Outside of my subspecialty, no one has heard of our society; etc.).

Again, in the engineering model, professional societies (e.g. ASME, IEEE) often have volunteer standards committees. Also industry groups (Sematch, SEMI). You've got to be careful with creating standards; ethical considerations (if you're a boiler maker, and you sit on the boiler standards committee, you've got to make a safe standard to prevent explosions, but you must also be fair in avoiding conflicts of interest...), which can set up legal issues.

There you have it 8)

Cloaking on again...

 

[Ad van Tage]

Decloaking again...

I'm a P.E. Happens to be that in the subspecialty that I'm in, having the P.E. designation is as useful as bicycles to fish...

If you want your own standards, you can incorporate a non-profit organization to create your very own professional society (I'm a member of a professional society which was organized about 14 years ago; grew from about 1/2 dozen to currently over 500; their own professional journal, etc.). Then, you can set whatever standards you wish. The issues you would encounter include, who else would care? (Outside of my subspecialty, no one has heard of our society; etc.).

Again, in the engineering model, professional societies (e.g. ASME, IEEE) often have volunteer standards committees. Also industry groups (Sematch, SEMI). You've got to be careful with creating standards; ethical considerations (if you're a boiler maker, and you sit on the boiler standards committee, you've got to make a safe standard to prevent explosions, but you must also be fair in avoiding conflicts of interest...), which can set up legal issues.

There you have it 8)

Cloaking on again...

Good points oh cloaked one. But one doesn't have to be too concerned about all the ins and outs , when one keeps it simple.
For instance if to be a "Professional Fishies Trader", one would have to agree to NOT TRADE IN CYANIDE caught fish... then the issue remains fairly straight forward! ***


I think THAT would make a good starting point. And yes, a group of volunteers who would draft a charter as a starter would be great! You wanna keep it simple. ***
Or else IT becomes a burden again. And then one would exclude many who would pass up the chance to be "Certified" and "Cyanide Free"...

How long do you think it would take to catch on :?: :?: :?:



_________________
~ Ad aka Ecoworrier ~


*** FOOTNOTE: Bringing up ALL the potential problems, is a bit of a red herring.
We aren't exactly giving potentially lethal injections, nor designing bridges that must not collapse. Etc. etc.

 

[blue hula]

... But one doesn't have to be too concerned about all the ins and outs , when one keeps it simple.
For instance if to be a "Professional Fishies Trader", one would have to agree to NOT TRADE IN CYANIDE caught fish... then the issue remains fairly straight forward! ***

I would think that being a professional aquarist would be defined as one who only trades in sustainably exploited species. Cyanide is but one component, albeit, an emotive one.

The difference between overexploitation and use of cyanide is loss of habitat. Thus, with cyanide use, recovery requires recovery of fish and habitat as opposed to simply fish. However, in the short term, this may well be six of one etc. Taking every last fish but using nets to do it makes me only marginally less unhappy than using cyanide to do it.

And, not to be cheeky ... the devil is in the detail. As MAC has found to their dismay.

Cheers, Blue Hula

 

[hdtran]

Again, uncloaking... (Cap'n, that cloaking device, she canna take it anymore!)

I'm a hobbyist (I like to think reasonably knowledgeable amateur). I like to support my LFS; I don't want to buy mail-order, esp. livestock. There are 2-3 LFS's in my area which carry SW, in addition to the two mega-chains (of which only one carries, if one can call it that, SW).

Of the LFS's, only 1 is decent. He specializes in SW exclusively. I buy all my livestock from him. If he carries two clowns, and tells me that one was captive-bred, and the other wild-caught, I'll buy the captive-bred, because I want sustainable collection. I'm willing to pay extra for that (for some reason, captive clowns seem to cost more than wild here). I won't buy Goniopora. I asked him about sustainable collection; his answer was 'damfino.'

I will not mail-order fish, even if I knew that that would ensure that they were sustainably collected. So, for a professional standard to have an impact on me, it's got to impact my LFS. Once you do that, given a choice, I would prefer sustainably collected.

The analogy to me, it's a bit like organic produce--I'm willing to pay a premium, but I'm not willing to forgo, say, bananas because I can't find organic bananas.

(Scotty, get that $# cloaking device on again!!!)