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Aquarium fishery

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Aquarium fishery

Aquarium fishery is the process of fishing wild fish for sale to private and public aquariums.

Contents

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:

  • Use of cyanide and other destructive collection methods
  • Poor handling and husbandry practices
  • Unnecessary animal mortality
  • Collection of unwanted and/or unsuitable species
  • Potential for stock depletion
  • Ecosystem effect of live coral and live rock exports
  • Potential for alien species introduction
  • Lack of reliable data on the resources and the trade
  • Limited government capacity for reef management and enforcement
  • Potential for government trade restrictions

    • 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.

    References

    Aquarium fishery Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA