MAC Certified Fish

[triggermanray]

although i haven't posted before i've been following alot of the threads about MAC and there are alot of mixed reviews. i recently received one of my availability lists and saw about a handful of MAC cetified fish and was wondering if it would be in anybodies best interest to order some eventhough there isn't a current cyanide test happening. is this maybe just a ploy to maybe make more money or is this a positive move by MAC?
i was also just curious if the wholesalers actually have all these seperated from the ones that aren't ceftified.

one more question not pertaining to MAC. maybe steve of cortez marine might be able to answer. why does there seem to be an abundance of blue spotted jawfish available then from years past and at a very reasonable cost. is there any type of drugs being used to catch these guys?

ray

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to reefs.org, triggermanray.

I can't really answer all your questions very well, but I'll do my best to add/round out the picture for you.

Part of the problem that we'll all have a hard time getting around is that, even if your particular specimen was properly collected, it does not mean that it hasn't been exposed to cyanide. (It is only a poison, to the best of my knowledge there are no therapeutic benefits--hormesis theories excepted.)

This seems to be part and parcel part of the problem with how MAC is operating, and, from what I've understood, it's going to be difficult to get collectors to deal with the paperwork if they're illiterate. Certainly, the issues are clearly much more far-reaching than that, but it's got to be a consideration.

Where does this leave hobbyists? If you want to be absolutely guaranteed that you are not supporting cyanide use in the industry, there are currently only two routes I know of: abstinence (right! LOULE!) or purchasing ONLY captive-raised stock. We have other users here who, if I recollect correctly, have stocked their entire systems using only captive-raised stock.

I will suggest that you check out CORL (the Coalition Of Reef Lovers) and the work of Mike King. http://www.corl.org/projects_present.html

The benefits to hobby itself will not be immediate, but longterm solutions to ALL the problems of these areas of the world really need to be addressed--from fishing methods used to how they acquire new land (by burying under sea shores) to siltation and pollution.

I know that this doesn't exactly answer your questions, but I do hope it's been somewhat helpful.

 

[clarionreef]

Hi,
No the numbers of bluespot jawfish flooding into the country have absolutely nothing to do with drug collecting issues at all. Nor do the numbers of yellow tang or flame angels...or lemonpeels or flame hawks, or green chromis or etc. etc.
All the jawfish are now collected by the way by small hooks and lines...0/16 treble hook w/ one tine twisted off and the remaining two barbs bent down by a small pair of needlenose pliers...come in without the quinaldyne used before by other outfits. Our divers from Cortez mingled with others and taught them the method. Technology transfer via osmosis.
Supply and demand determine the cost. Handling large numbers however by money people, ruin a lot of them. They fight, suffer skin abrasion very easily and need to be seperated from point of collection.
People largely determine the cost of the fish: market forces, overstocking , competition. Its got nothing to do w/ drugs, an expensive and inefficient way to do it.
Never was cyanide or drug collecting more efficient and this is but one more example that helps to prove it.
Training, learning and changing occurs in everything we do and in all businesses. It just hasn't occured much among the dilatory, eco-elite pretending to solve collecting problems in S. E. Asia. This needs to change.
Bluespot jawfish, garden eels,damsels, pseudochromis, small gobies and blennies, angels etc...nothing needs dope to be collected. ..nothing!
Dopes too expensive and too inefficient and has been promoted by bad business practice and inadvertantly by bad and poorly advised environmentalism.
This needs to stop soon.
Steve