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Aquarium fishery is the process of fishing wild fish for sale to private and public aquariums.
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Demise of MAC
The Marine Aquarium Council (MAC) was an international organization formed in 1998 by stake holders including animal collectors, exporters, importers, retailers, aquarium keepers, and public aquariums, conservation organizations and government agencies. MAC recognized problems in the trade and wanted to address them. Vosseler listed them as follows:
The stake holders were unable to regulate the industry and MAC ceased to function due to internal disagreements in 2008.
Call for prohibition
With the lack of oversight and the danger to the environment by overfishing environmentalists have called for stricter regulation and even prohibition of the collecting of wild fish for private aquariums. Captive-bred tropical fish are readily available for hobbyists. "In this day and age, where the ocean faces a crisis ... there's absolutely no justification for a fishery for hobby," indicated Mike Long of Sea Shepherd.
Environmental efforts led Hawaii to enact some protection in the late 1990s when certain sections were closed to aquarium fisheries. There is evidence that these protective measure have been effective, but reefs are also endangered from other factors such as fertilizer run-off and coastal development.