jarrod0987
Aquarium Advice FINatic
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2005
- Messages
- 512
Don't know if you have seen this? Apparently our SW fish are still being mostly collected by Cyanide and killed by food fisherman blasting. Unreal.
My wording is something to take with a grain f salt. I should be more clear though.They're making huge strides in captive breeding especially with tangs and larger fish. I believe the first hippo tangs were just bred in captivity. Yes most SW fish are taken from the oceans currently and cyanide is a huge issue but I wouldn't say the SW hobby is destroying our oceans. There's a lot worse things humans have done that have led to the declines of the oceans reefs.
I am very aware of many of the issues surrounding the destruction of oceans.Unfortunately, the fish keeping hobby is far from the cause of the decline of the oceans. Yes, there were ( and probably still are) areas in the world that used chemicals to collect the fish we keep but there are less of those areas now. HOWEVER, environmental reasons are more to blame for the decline of the oceans than fish collectors are. It's happened here in FL and was directly caused by human activities NOT associated with tropical fish collecting. Yes, human activity is a major cause of the decline even if you don't believe in climate change being a cause but it's not from collecting fish. Look at the decimation of the shark population solely for the fins to make soup. The problem is that without the top predators, the system collapses and it's shown by the areas where there is no shark collecting and those areas are teaming with fish life.
Now, if you want to be a responsible aquarist, don't try to keep a fish that grows to 20 lbs in a tank that only holds 50 gallons of water. Don't keep a fish that needs open water to swim in in a tank that is highly decorated because it looks nicer that way. Don't keep trying to mix the fish you want instead of mixing the fish that can be mixed.
Threads like this are good for discussion but without the facts, they are not really beneficial. Here's some articles you should read:
Massive 40% decline in ocean's phytoplankton puts entire food chain under threat | Daily Mail Online
Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions — Global Issues
(This last one is science and not opinion.)
It's not because of the tropical fish industry.
I agree it's small when comparing to other contributors but is it not important to target all fronts in order to save our precious oceans?This is a drop in the bucket, haven't seen much about the ohhh.. Umm.. bleaching of the reefs in Australia?? Kind of a big deal.. humans are going to have what they want and want what they don't have.. gotta get them fish somehow..
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I agree it's small when comparing to other contributors but is it not important to target all fronts in order to save our precious oceans?
It seems so far the conversation is surrounding justification and not really addressing the issue I am trying to bring to light.
We can start another topic on saving the oceans and discuss all the major contributors. But those should not take away from this discussion.
Focusing on how we keep saltwater livestock and being responsible in collection and breeding projects is what's important.
Redirecting the attention to larger issues doesn't fix or help the one I am currently trying to discuss and fix.
So let's not worry about adding additional regulations.
How about educating the hobbyist and get everyone on board with only buying captive bred species.
This would then force even more effort to be put into finding ways to accomplish this as the consumer can drive change more than anyone. Money talks.
That sounds great and all like sunshine and rainbows.. let's face it.. Unless amazon starts offering captive bred sw fish on prime with a live arrival guarantee it's survival of the fittest man.
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So it's not easy so let's not even try.