A little confused, Who here justifies this hobby?

[losthere]

With how well we take care of our oceans, the only corals that exist will be in our tanks.

 

[losthere]

Farming is incredibly environmentally destructive. I think you should stop eating.

Ha Ha. That is great. I am an organic farmer, and I hear stuff like that all the time. How we are destroying the earth, and how we need to start farming like the old days, with a horse instead of a tractor, because the CO2 the tractor produces. With as may people we have on the planet that is not effecient enough, and the people who dont know how to farm will starve and die. Go green and go back in time. Sounds like fun. I thought advanced civilizations make advancements and improve technology, not revert backwards in development.

 

[iamwrasseman]

its so much cheaper to revert in time as the technologies are already there and your not paying for cutting edge inventions . every one that thinks we are hurting the reefs somewhat correct but they are the same people that don't think about what they are doing when they get in the car or turn on the heat ,lights ,tv or any other electrical component in the house or work . needless to talk about the fossil fuels burned for our everyday luxuries in life . just a tip on the iceberg here and together they are ruining the reefs worse that some collection of fish and corals that are going to be killed by global warming that we as humans have accelerated by unmeasurable amounts .

 

[cortez marine]

With how well we take care of our oceans, the only corals that exist will be in our tanks

.

IF that were the case, we would have a lot more to worry about then aquarium coral species.
If reefs go down, we probably will as well.
They feed, sustain and employ too much of the world.

Huge issues pertaining to coastal geography, grassbeds, estuaries, mangroves, nurseries for countless fishes, vital habitat for pelagic fishes forage fishes etc. all revolve around reef life.

Arguably the smallest negative impact will be the loss of aquarium corals.
If you imagine reefs corals to represent a repository to re-seed the planets dead reefs....don't.
We would not survive long enough for the terra....er....mari-forming to regrow the lost immensity of global reefs and their productivity.

Its not reefs or no reefs.
Its more like reefs or no more us.
You know, the soundbites like the "rainforests of the seas"..."the planets lungs" etc.
Take reefs out of the equation and we may see a chain reaction of existance changing consequence.
Steve

 

[loganbug3]

I believe that we are bringing luxury and enjoyment to ourselves, raising awareness about reefs, conserving certaing species in our tanks, and providing jobs for people around the world. Even if the hobby only brought us enjoyment and had no other good results about it whatsoever, there are other hobbies and industries that only bring enjoyment which hurt the enviroment a lot more than we ever will.

 

[iamwrasseman]

loganbug3 i agree 1000000% good stuff there and true too!

 

[ReefRat_Com]

I am not a hippy, In fact I think aliens are growing us here to harvest us and eat, so I do not care too much about "earth" I still dont litter though.. I dislike it.)

We need more people with your open mindedness. :]

there is no way we are helping the reef but i think there are some hobbyists that hurt the reef more than others. A lot of "pro" hobbyist house too many tangs to a tank or have a tank thats too small for a species of fish. I also dont think you should be able to reap the benefits of the world. What gives anyone the right to go catch hundred of baby yellow tangs for there profit? and the only overhead they have is to catch and ship them. People that sell fish should only be allowed to take what they help creat (breed)

 

[iamwrasseman]

many of us have jobs that "reap the benefits of the world" gasoline, all things made from plastics ,anything made from wood ,even the computer your using right now is made from things that have been taken from the world ! this is just the tip of the iceberg dude . evidently you have no idea what you are speaking of here . 99% of the fish and corals are wild caught and you would have the choice of about 30 fish that are captive bred . we are not making a dent in fish populations compared to pollution and global warming needles to say what this oil spill will do to the gulf coast and people that make their livings from shrimp and fish selling . there are going to be thousands out of work and bankrupt because of our need for fossil fuels and you think we are hurting the reefs and fish on them . have you seen any videos of the coral propagation in the ocean on utube ? enidently not as we are doing all we can do to sustain any species that we are collecting . please wake up and smell the &^(*& that we have done in all the other areas that are damaging this world by so much more than taking a few fish off the reefs !
WOW how blind some are ~

 

[Ralph ATL]

Let's get "REAL" people...........There is an animal rescue in Paulding County, GA that is closing due to renovations.....all animals will die unless picked up, 20 buck fee only to get one. There are 15 or so metro counties in ATL area, Gwinnett County last year killed 7500 pets alone! Dogs & Cats! That's just one small sample of one metro county! OMG!

 

[iamwrasseman]

it should be a crime to own a pet and abandon it . i hate things like that as they never think of the responsibility before and when they get overwhelmed they bail on their commitment .i would feed my dog before i eat myself if it came down to it as he has brought more joy than anything in my present world . just dont tell my wife , LOL ~

 

[elegance coral]

.i would feed my dog before i eat myself if it came down to it as he has brought more joy than anything in my present world . just dont tell my wife , LOL ~

:lmao::rollface::lmao::thumbsup:

 

[Ralph ATL]

Awesome! Lmao!

 

[Ryno368]

with the dog/cat situation, I myslef would never buy a dog or cat from the petlands and petsmarts, because they mostly come from puppy mills. I myself raise and breed chiahuas and I own 3, a male and 2 females.

I was thinking along the lines of a couple of the other hobbyist here when Zoos take a endangered panda, elephant, sea turtle out of their natural enviroment to help encourage their repopulation. If only we could replicate this in a large scale in our hobby to make new reefs or replace the reefs that6 have been damaged by nature or humans.

Also doesn't the government sink ships to create artificial reefs in the ocean. What are the positive and negative effects of this?

 

[iamwrasseman]

the ships do provide a good combination of hiding and colonizing areas so i would imagine it helps . the amount of what we remove from the ocean is just so minimal compared to the devistation that is done through pollution and the preditors that occupy the reefs .yes number wise we do take many but you have to take into consideration the vast numbers that are really on the reefs .

 

[loganbug3]

I agree with wrasseman. We could definitely hurt the environment a lot more than we do. And those artifficial reefs don't have any outstanding pluses but they don't hurt anything either.

 

[coralnut99]

if newcommers spent more time reading up first before filling a 3 week old tank with nems, fish and corals the losses would reduce, also with the success rates with fragging and tank breeding now i think we can justify the hobby, were taking less than before, hopefully new methods of this and constant discussion between reefers on forums like this will rapidly reduce whats taken from the oceans as new discoveries with breeding and propagating are spread from reefer to reefer.

i think today in this century we can justify our hobby 1000 times more than we could just 15 years ago.

If you take out the references to the reefkeeping, this essentially describes all hobbies involving animals of any sort.

Just step back a bit and think about how much xenia is now taken from the reefs versus 15 years ago. How about the various plating monti species? The vast majority of reefkeers now consider these and others weeds and become near or actual giveaways.

It's a hobby that's being transformed at a MUCH faster pace than the FW side was.

The percentage of livestock that's captive-bred is exponentially higher than it was just 5 years ago and still growing.

And here's the best part: Using all the knowledge that this hobby's amassed over such a short period the mariculture industry that's sprung in areas previously known for just hacking corals from the reef is one of the newest forms of farming known to man.

If you look at it from a historical perspective, a then vs now kind of overview, it's actually very easy to justify the hobby.

 

[fortysixandtwo]

CO2 is not a bad thing, I don't know why so many of you are concerned with a single trace element. Wouldn't it be better to just do your best to be as kind to the earth as possible, and do things as environmentally friendly? Find actual ways to help nature, help the coral reefs? Instead of chasing pipe dreams about lessening your "carbon footprint"?

I think this hobby is beneficial because like everyone said, it provides jobs and spreads awareness of the ocean. I can't tell you how many people have become fascinated with preservation and/or the ocean after seeing my tank.

I have learned so much about Marine biology from this tank along with the Zoology class I took last semester during which I obtained my tank. After I pursue my phd in entomology I fully intend to study marine biology as well. If not for my tank initially spuring interest in the subject, I would not be nearly as into this aspect of nature and desire to further my knowledge.

This hobby turns thousands of people into scientists. I think that in itself is what is so great about this hobby.

 

[rklaue]

Haha, I thought you meant justify monetarily

 

[808Rob]

interesting thread.
I'm sure like many others, we are not wasting away many valuable resources like some may claim, but rather I think we are learning how to preserve what we enjoy. I don't go to the LFS and say that "I want to buy that fish/coral because I want to kill it".
We live within our means. I'm sure everyone here doesn't live in a grass shack or a house made of mud lit by candles.

 

[808Rob]

interesting thread.
I'm sure like many others, we are not wasting away many valuable resources like some may claim, but rather I think we are learning how to preserve what we enjoy. I don't go to the LFS and say that "I want to buy that fish/coral because I want to kill it".
We live within our means. I'm sure everyone here doesn't live in a grass shack or a house made of mud lit by candles.