Reef keeping and the impact it does?

[Frogspawn]

hi i wanted to get other people veiws on this subject.

I been doin alot of research on the inernet and have found many sites that blame the marine aquarist along with the global warmin and the mining of limestone for the depleation of the worlds Reefs. now i am not one for global warming. but thats not what caught my eye. i pondered on the idea of aquarist being the blame for the decline of our reefs. and wanted to know how other people felt about that? or even if they think its true. and also what could we do to mabey help. please chime in. i am very intrested about this and want to know more. so if any one has any infomation pls share

 

[MT79]

According to just about everything I've read, it is a real contributor to reef destruction. Besides directly removing some animals, some methods of collection are destructive to the animals left behind as well. The SW hobby is pretty popular, and the numbers are growing. Just 20 years ago, or so, reefs w/ the diversity of coral kept now were unimaginable. People used to consider Goniopora corals hardy. It was only later realized it just takes them longer to die than most corals. (Ironically, Goni's still are difficult to keep, long term, today) W/ success comes popularity. The rising demand for reef animals, compounded by GW'ing, and sediment run off from deforestation and destructive farming practices is taking a toll on reefs, and most likely will continue to. It's estimated by ~2020 that 60% of all reefs could be gone. Approx. 16% are bleached as of now, and many more in danger. Buying aquacultured, maricultured, tank raised, and fragging your own, corals is a responsible thing to do. It has many benefits. It's always good when your tank starts paying for itself, or you can help out a fellow reefer by giving them a good deal on a frag.
Just my .02

 

[Ziggy953]

I think that the fact that Aquaculturing and maricultring are growing in popularity in our hobby shows that many of us are enviromentally contious. The factors that MT listed are true, the GBR is shrinking in areas and growing by leaps and bounds in others.

If you wonder about mans influence on the destruction of the reef (GBR in particular) have a look at the result of heavy farming in Australia. All the excess nutrient pumped into the ocean created algae, which in turn allowed a nasty starfish to thrive, the crown of thorwns star, which is a coral killer. It destroys everything in it's path, and can be directly linked to the increase in nutrients/algae in and around the GBR. I think that our hobby is a part of the global reef problem but only a small part. Most of us that have reef tanks are interested in conservation and want to see our natural reefs protected!

I'm all for the aquacultured frag! Get those porp tanks going and grow your own. Keep our natural reefs exactly that, natural. Though I think it wll require much much more then us hobbyist growing our own corals to really turn things around.

Another $.02 worth....

 

[Frogspawn]

WOW.
Priceless

 

[tecwzrd]

Great info guys and I've read similar as far as deforestation and destructive farming practices along with the crown of thorns Sea Star (which can move up to 20 miles per hour ).

Even as our hobby is growing actual "reef keepers" still only make up a very small percentage of all SW tanks so our blame is more limited then other factors and as more people get into aqua culturing and tank raising fish hopefully it will even be less of an issue.

 

[Devilishturtles]

That's why frags and aquacultured corals rock so much.

 

[newfound77951]

I really doubt the 20 mph.....that's about as fast as the average person can sprint 100 yds! But they are quick (for starfish), venomous, and extremely destructive.

I think everyone should make an effort to buy aquacultured or maricultured corals, and also captive raised fish, fish that were sustainably caught, and also DO NOT buy fish (or corals) that have poor survival rates in captivity. If there is no demand for these species they will not be collected and will be left on the reef where they belong.

I think that other anthropogenic factors have more widespread impacts on reefs than collecting for the aquarium trade, but it is still significant. A couple of degree temp increase in the tropical ocean will dramatically change the status of many reefs as corals have a pretty tight temperature tolerance. Sedimentation and nutrient runoff are big problems especially in developing countries.

 

[Frogspawn]

is there any organization out there that help server and protect our natural reefs and oceans?

and i cant seem to just think that its just the reefs being affected. what about the fish and mammals also. like the whales and sharks. does the problem at hand affect them also?

 

[BillD]

The collecting of marine fish , for the hobby, with the use of cyanide, has led to much destruction of the coral reefs. the cyanide kills the are of reef that it contacts. There is a group that has gone to the Philipines and taught fisherman alternative methods, to cyanide, which protects the reefs, and gives the fisherman a better price for his catch. It is in the interest of these fisherman to protect their livelihood. In the US, I believe live rock farming (by permit) has been the norm in Florida, if I remeber correctly. It is just one of many factors destroying the reefs.

 

[Frogspawn]

what is cyanide and how is it used?

 

[MT79]

^^ http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-01/sp/index.php

 

[roka64]

Cyanide is a poison. They use it to stun the fish and capture them.

 

[Frogspawn]

thats crul. some one should put that stuff in there drinking water and see how they like it. and mabey while there stuned . hang them from a bambo tree upside down. and see how long they live. lol

 

[Ziggy953]

It is dialog such as this that sparks peoples passion about conservation and saving out natural resources. WE are the voice that needs to speak up. WE need to be the group, because of our love for the hobby and the animals we keep, to help facilitate a change. If not us, who then?

Here is a link to a website dedicated to Reef conservation....

http://www.seacology.org/?gclid=CLu1z4vDvIsCFSJGgQoddHnYwQ

 

[Frogspawn]

great web site. i contacting the people and donateing some money. its not alot but i guess every little bit helps.its so crazy. this topic has stuck in my head for many days now and and i find my self thinking alot about it and what i could do. i never knew how bad our worlds reefs are.
i just wish there was more i could realy do.
thanks again

 

[macman7010]

Frogspawn,

Global warming has a far, far greater impact on world reefs then marine aquariums (at least in their current capacity) ever could. If you want to learn a lot more about coral reef degredation and the destruction of world oceans I recommend the following programs:

Ocean's Deadliest (Animal Planet)
Coral Reef Adventure (Howard and Michelle Hall DVD)
Deep Sea (Howard and Michelle Hall DVD)
Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Adventures (PBS)
Island of the Sharks (Howard and Michelle Hall DVD)

There are several things that are quickly depleting the world's coral reefs of coral. Siltation is a large problem and in Fiji this was caused by deforestation. As they were cutting down forests silt and machine run-off was washing into a major river that fed directly into the ocean onto a large coral reef. The siltation basically smothered the corals light source and caused for excessive algae blooms. It lowered the oxygen content of the surronding water killing many fish and the end result was total reef destruction. You can witness all of this in the film mentioned above, Coral Reef Adventure.

The next threat hitting reefs today is Global Warming (GW). GW has caused for a rise in ocean tempatures and the warmer water causes many corals to bleach and die. Once the skeleton is bleached unwanted algae grows and the combination of accessive algae and warm water knocks a whole reef system.

The third knocker is overfishing and anchoring. When a boat drops a huge anchor to stay suspended off shore it often knocks right into the reef crushing decades or even centuries worth of coral growth. Compile that with the loss of big fish (highly important to reef ecosystem stability) due to overfishing and you basically have a gigantic threat to reefs. Sadly the things I just mentioned are only human impacts on the reef; natural occruances such as tropical storms and hurricanes can do even more damage!

The aquarium hobby has both a negative and positive impact on fish and coral populations. First the hobby has brought about a great amount of research in coral and invert aquaculture and live breeding. These programs have been used not only to stock aquariums but also build populations of animals on natural coral reefs. There is a T.Clam farm in Florida that breeds clams for the sole purpose of re-stocking carribean and indo-pacific reef systems with these natural filtering animals.

The aquarium hobby sadly has employed methods to capture fish that have accelerated reef decline. The use of cyanide and other poisions to capture fish is the biggie though the use of dynamite is worse (dynamite is mainly used for capturing food fish). Today there are still some rogue nations (mainly in Asia) that still use cyanide but overall its becoming a forgotten practice.

One positive impact the hobby has had regarding fish populations is encouraging nations to protect their reefs with live fish capture. If a nation empolys sustanable techniques, such as net capture and encourages the health of thier reef (much like what takes place in Palua) we can encourage them not to bomb the reef for limestone since the aquarium trade produces a higher profit if they can get healthy animals.

So basically in the scheme of things the hobby has had far less impact on the ocean then many other factors and thankfully has been able too and continues to give back a fair bit!

 

[Frogspawn]

cool. i think i might o to my local boarders and see if they have those 3 dvds i would like to see them.
truly i though GW was a hokes to scare people like Y2K stuff but i might do some more research on that subject also. my list beside my computer just keeps rowing of this to look up and buy lol thank u all for the great information. u got say we got some pretty smart people on this form.
grats to all

 

[macman7010]

Frogspawn,

Glad to hear you want to check out the DVD films I listed. Howard and Michelle Hall are world famous underwater photographers, most highly noted for IMAX film production and conservation minded ocean films.

Though Global Warming has been proven not to be a hoax but a very real scientific phenomenua. While the causes of Global Warming (i.e. natural warming of Earth's atmosphere or human related causes such as burning of fossil fuels) have been a subject of debate, I dont know of any science minded conservationist that doesnt view Global Warming as a very real problem.

Michael Crichton (author of Jurassic Park) wrote a novel called, State of Fear, where he said that the scientific community had manufactored Global Warming to incite panic in the public. This though is a work of fiction that carries no more real truth then his other novel Jurassic Park. Here is a link to a very detailed article on Global Warming and cites some potential, human and natural causes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

 

[beachbumin]

A lot of great posts here guys! My thougts are that we should always try and frag or get aquacultured corals to help build the SW industry. If the $$ are there people will invest in aquaculturing more. Also, by having the tanks on display for friends, family, clients,etc. hopefully we can instill a sense of pride and preservation in people to help protect our natural reefs. Boy, with all these two cents we are going to have a pile of money ourselves before too much longer! LOL

 

[fishrfreinds]

Must people complain that it's the LR we are taking from the reefs is one of the more major problems. So aquacluturing and creating artificial reef rock and taking less LR will help, hopefully.


I plan to try to make some DIY LR this summer. I feel that it would be great to customize my own rocks